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... the australian food and grocery council (afgc) has applauded the decision by the federal government to oppose the food standards amendment (truth in labelling palm oil) bill 2011 ... tabled into the australian parliament as a private member’s bill by independent senator nick xenophon, the legislation was rejected by a senate committee in july, but passed by the australian federal senate through an alliance between independent senator nick xenophon, the greens and the coalition ... the afgc has warned a house of representatives economics committee that the bill will put australian manufacturing and export operations at “high-risk” and add substantial extra costs ... yesterday, afgc chief executive kate carnell said the palm oil labelling bill would cost the australian food manufacturing industry a$150 million and “would not save any orang-utans” ... “it’s hard to understand why the coalition would support a bill that’s so contrary to business – it’s simply not the right time to introduce significant new cost pressures and regulatory burdens on industry when the sector is already under significant pressures,” ms carnell said ... “industry’s challenges include high labour prices, less flexibility on wages, higher energy power prices, high transport costs, growth in private label brands and near-record high global commodity prices for sugar, diary, cocoa and wheat and the high australian dollar making imports cheaper ... ” federal government opposes the bill the federal government has opposed the bill on the following grounds: first of all, that the bill will be of significant cost to the australian food industry (estimated at up to a$150 million) at a time when manufacturers are “struggling due to increasing costs and the high australian dollar” ... secondly, that the bill contravenes world trade organization requirements for food labelling adversely impacting industrial trade ... 3 per cent of the world’s palm oil and the majority of australian manufacturers have already committed to using palm oil certified by the roundtable on sustainable palm oil (rspo)

... the australian food and grocery council (afgc) is urging the federal government to act quickly to keep australia’s food manufacturing industry alive ... the afgc has called on the australian government to “remove unnecessary regulation and duplication, such as food labelling changes, and reduce costs of doing business” ... the afgc also says it is “critical” that australian government fast-tracks its national food plan ... the afgc’s ceo kate carnell says several food and grocery manufacturing operations have already moved offshore because of the challenges facing the industry in australia ... “we need government to support a business environment where companies can innovate and value-add to remain competitive ... at the moment, many leading food and grocery companies are seriously weighing up their future options for manufacturing in australia,” ms carnell said ... “it’s vital that the government creates a broad-base policy that supports a viable, competitive and robust food and grocery manufacturing sector that will continue to deliver high quality products for australia and the export market ... ” over the past two months, around 300 job cuts have been announced across the a$102 billion food manufacturing sector ... recent australian food industry cutbacks have included: - 150 jobs lost at spc ardmona following the announced closure of its mooroopna factory by the middle of next year, and - 146 jobs lost at heinz following the closure of its girgarre factory in north-east victoria ... the afgc’s state of the industry 2010 report showed a total loss of 3,400 jobs since 2006-07 within the food manufacturing sector ... “industry is facing a growing list of pressures across australia’s long supply chain, such as high labour prices, less flexibility on wages, higher energy power prices, high transport costs, growth in private label brands and near record global commodity prices for raw materials such as sugar, dairy, cocoa and wheat,” ms carnell added

... australia’s premier consumer advocacy group choice has reignited the food debate over whether australia should adopt a traffic light system for front-of-package labelling of packaged foods ... traffic light labelling is a system that features red, green, or amber symbols on the label for each of the main nutrients in the product (such as fat, sugars, and salt) ... the idea behind traffic lights is to make it visually easier for consumers to choose a healthier food by comparing these colour codes between products ... “a spoonful of muesli may be a mouthful of sugar and fat,” choice warned, after it tested 159 types of muesli available to consumers in australia ... ten brands tested by choice met australian food regulator fsanz’s definition of “low fat” (no more than 3% fat) and 11 brands met fsanz’s definition for “low sugar” (no more than 5% sugars) ... industry approach the australian food industry, led by the australian food and grocery council (afgc), has been campaigning for an alternative labelling system known as the daily intake guide (dig) ... afgc chief executive kate carnell told australian food news today, “traffic light labels categorise foods as good and bad – but all foods can form part of a balanced diet ... “industry rejects traffic light labelling on the basis that it’s badly understood by consumers and the system has been rejected by countries around the world including in europe ... the daily intake guide (dig) is the labelling system preferred by the european union and canada ... these labels now appear on more than 4,000 supermarket products in australia and outline the amount of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in a standard portion of the food and how that translates to average daily intake ... the review of food labelling law and policy, headed by australian health minister, dr neal blewett and published in january 2011 recommended the use of dig labelling over traffic light labelling ... the parliamentarians deemed the system to be unclear and called for a system that indicates more clearly how much fat, carbohydrates, and sodium each product in european supermarkets contains

... he noted that despite the fact that increase in household income has sped up over the past three years, australian household consumption spending has in fact slowed down ... it’s no wonder that people are talking about consumer caution, and no wonder that retailers are finding things very tough indeed ... 8 per cent a year for a decade, and had outpaced income growth for two decades, no net growth in consumption for three years is quite a big change ... the research, conducted recently by frost & sullivan and pricewaterhousecoopers on australian and new zealand online shopping, found that online retail is expected to grow at least twice as fast as the growth rate for the total retail market in the next four years ... incentivised by lower prices, convenience and the strength of the australian dollar, australians are expected to expend over $13 ... in terms of the food retail industry, the research did acknowledge that retail sectors that are “non-food”, namely clothing, footwear, electronics and gaming, cosmetics and books, are more vulnerable to offshore online retailing than the food sector ... however, the food retail sector is also expected to experience a slowdown in growth ... on 26 july 2011, the australian food and grocery council (afgc) released its quarterly chep retail index on the performance of the australian retail market ... this retail index provides an indication of retail activity and forecasts trends in the retail sector based on the physical movement of products throughout australian supply chains ... “a fall in retail spending translates to fewer movements through australia’s long supply chain, impacting upon the food and grocery manufacturing sector, which is already under pressure from a ‘perfect storm’, such as rising input costs from wages, water and energy power prices, higher transport costs, including fuel, and near record high global commodity prices” ... the australian retail sector is also awaiting the release of the draft report by the productivity commission on its public inquiry into the “economic structure and performance of the australian retail industry”, due in august 2011

... palm oil bill unworkable and will cost industrya palm oil bill - which compromises the nation’s food and grocery labelling system - is unworkable in its current form and must be referred to a house of representatives committee for further discussion and examination, the australian food and grocery council (afgc) urged today ... the australian food and grocery council today called the recent palm oil labelling bill, passed in the senate with amendments last week, “unworkable”, and called for a house of representatives committee to further discuss and examine the bill ... the bill was rejected by a senate committee, but passed in the senate by an unexpected alliance between the introducer of the bill, independent senator nick xenophon, the greens and the coalition ... the bill calls for the mandatory labelling of palm oil within 12 months on all food and grocery products, both on the grounds of truth in labelling and in an attempt to allow consumers to avoid the ingredient, which has been implicated in the destruction of orangutan habitat in malaysia and indonesia ... the afgc said the bill will “impose significant costs to industry, compromise good regulation and labelling and won’t help to save one orangutan ... “food labelling is a state and territory-based responsibility ... as a result, states and territories will have to pass legislation to require palm oil labelling ... they have not been consulted at all on this issue and a committee would allow states and territories to have input into the bill ... “palm oil and its derivatives are unable to be verified by laboratory testing as the fatty acids and derivatives are not unique to palm oil ... how will the accc enforce this?” “the bill potentially breaches the australia / new zealand food treaty, where australia must not introduce any amendments to food law “without effective consultation” with new zealand ... ” “the bill undermines the current council of australian governments’ (coag) blewett labelling review process, which is still underway

... the senate has passed an amendment to the food act requiring that products containing palm oil be explicitly labelled, rather than described as ‘vegetable oil’ ... the bill was passed by coalition votes, and driven by greens senator rachael siewert and independent senator nick xenophon, both of whom have been vocal in their campaigns on the subject of palm oil ... most of the world’s supply of palm oil, an extremely common ingredient in foods and food additives, is produced in malaysia and indonesia, where it is common practice to clearfell forest for plantations ... senator xenophon also emphasised the consumer health aspect of the labelling, saying that australians consume 10kg of palm oil a year without knowing it, and that while other products labelled as ‘vegetable oil’ contain as little as 2% saturated fat, palm oil is 50% saturated fat ... while the bill was rejected last week by a senate committee, the alliance between the opposition and the two senators was enough to pass the bill, which will likely pass in the house of representatives if the coalition-greens alliance holds ... the australian food and grocery council decried the bill, saying the cost of changing a single label would be $10,000 to $19,000, and that food and grocery manufacturers were already under pressure from a ‘perfect storm’ of rising input costs ... “food labels should be about ensuring consumers have important product information relating to health, nutrition and safety ... malaysia also expressed “grave concern”, with the malaysian plantation industries and commodities minister tan sri bernard dompok describing the bill as “discriminatory” ... ” “it is clearly evident that facts and figures provided to the senate community affairs legislative committee have been clearly ignored,” dompok said ... “it is with great regret and disappointment that the australian senate has not accorded the due attention contributed by the oil palm industry in malaysia and the sustainable practices adopted

... woolworths has announced plans to add daily intake guide information to the front of all of its private label foods daily intake guide thumbnail labels already feature on more than 4000 supermarket products across australia, and woolworths said it plans to increase their use to its full range of products within the next 12 months ... the move was applauded by the australian food and grocery council, which has championed the use of dig labelling over other front-of-pack nutritional labelling styles, such as the traffic light labels recommended by the blewett labelling review or sanitarium’s recently launched healthy eating system ... the afgc has supported the system with a “healthy eating, made easy” atv dvertising campaign, as well as consumer education material and magazines in stores

... the australian food and grocery council, together with not-for-profit barcode standards body gs1 australia, have called for industry support for their new smartphone app, gs1 goscan, which will allow extended labelling of products via barcode scanning by consumers ... initially available for iphone, goscan has the capacity to list accurately a large amount of “real time” product data to consumers, including ingredients, nutritional content, rdi information, dietary statuses such as kosher/halal/organic etc, country of origin information, the presence of allergens and other health-related issues, and product descriptions and images ... afgc chief executive kate carnell said industry has worked closely with gs1 australia to develop and test this innovative bar code scanning technology to deliver a global food safety culture and provide more product information for consumers ... “extended labelling for food products has been successfully trialled and has now become a reality in australia – we are now calling on industry to get behind this system and, from today, upload their data,” carnell said ... at the product’s launch, at the afgc’s annual conference, gs1 australia ceo maria palazzolo put out a call to action to food manufacturers to populate the gs1net database with their product information ... this issue not only concerns the protection of consumers - it is the protection of our children and families ... “gs1 australia is a trusted source of extended labelling data from all manufacturers and suppliers in australia ... commit to your customers, work with us and together we can deliver a global food safety culture ... “demand is increasing for government to take a more strategic approach to food labelling policy ... label space is highly contested with competing pressures from consumers and food suppliers

... 10 -13 july 2011: during four days in july, more than 9,000 key decision makers from australia’s food and beverage manufacturing and processing industries are anticipated to attend the triennial foodpro, the largest australasian food and beverage industry trade exhibition of its kind ... after all, this industry sector, generating sales and service income of more than $100 billion annually, is the nation’s largest, encompassing more than a quarter of australia’s manufacturing industry* ... while employing some three percent of the australian workforce, it also accounts for $44 ... 8 billion in trade and exports worth $27 ... at foodpro, the industry comes together to research and discuss the latest innovations and trends in the food and beverage sector, with the more than 300 suppliers in australia and new zealand showcasing their wares at foodpro 2011 ... for an industry that commits to over $650 million in r&d expenditure*, foodpro is a forum for food and beverage processing and manufacturing exhibitors to present the latest in food innovation, leading-edge technologies and crucial industry developments ... foodpro is a remarkable convergence of the industry’s most powerful ideas and product showcases including newest food manufacturing industry trends as well as the latest in food and beverage processing machinery, services, technical products, ingredients, flavourings, additives, food safety, micro-biology and testing equipment, packaging, handling, storage, transport, plant equipment, hygiene, water and waste systems, and much more ... foodpro manager, peter petherick, believes that foodpro’s successful track record has contributed to its significance to the food and beverage industry ... “since its inception in the 1960s, foodpro has become the most influential and comprehensive food manufacturing event in the australasian region ... “for visitors, it’s an invaluable opportunity to view the latest products and concepts from highly skilled food manufacturing business suppliers

... the australian food and grocery council (afgc) said it was “disappointing” that the federal government allocated no new funds for a national food plan in the 2011-12 budget ... “the budget contained no extra funding for developing a broad-base national food plan, which is vital for australia’s largest manufacturing industry – food and grocery – to have a long-term, strategic focus to ensure australia has a safe, nutritious and sustainable food supply into the future,” said the industry body ... afgc chief executive kate carnell said: “industry is expecting a white paper to be released in the next month or so and we hoped there would be some extra money for the implementation for the food plan over the next 12 months ... “increasing skilled migration is a very real problem for industry, especially gaining appropriate people all way through the food and grocery supply chain, particular tradespeople,” ms carnell said ... “the establishment of the national workforce development fund (nwdf) and a $558 million investment over four years in regional training programs will also benefit australia’s food and grocery manufacturers who employ 288,000 australians, including half in rural and regional areas ... ” carnell said the government’s significant investments in roads, ports and freight infrastructure across australia would help industry including major highway upgrades ... “road and freight infrastructure is fundamental for getting manufactured products from farm to factory to market, whether the market is in australia or overseas,” ms carnell said ... industry also applauded the government’s commitment to finalise the national freight strategy and develop an implementation strategy ... a commitment to progress the national waste policy and a product stewardship legislative framework was also supported by industry