We’re evaluating reforms to Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) for Food regulations, and are seeking input from stakeholders and consumers. We’d like to know how effective the reforms and new labelling requirements have been, including the impacts and any unintended consequences.
We committed to evaluate the reforms two years after the regulations came into effect in July 2018. Since then, industry and consumers have had time to familiarise themselves with and adjust to the new labelling requirements.
The reforms aimed to:
- improve consumer access to origin information for food
- clarify what origin claims businesses can make
- do this without imposing excessive costs on businesses
We’ll use a range of consultation approaches as part of the evaluation process, including a discussion paper, online surveys, consumer focus groups and interviews with consumers, industry and government. We expect to complete the review in June 2021.
A Reference Group of senior officials will support the evaluation, drawing representatives from:
- our department
- the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
- the Treasury
- the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
- the Department of Health
Our discussion paper is the first opportunity to provide input.
Read the paper and have your say via our Consultation hub.
Submissions close on 11 September.
The evaluation won’t examine CoOL requirements for complementary medicines. This is because proposed changes to improve access to Australian Made claims for Australian manufactured complementary medicines are before Parliament.
