Criticism of simplified Country of Origin food Bill

WELLINGTON: MPs are being criticised for watering down a member’s Bill requiring whole foods to have labels on them stating where they came from.

It would require producers to name a food’s country of origin, to prevent consumers being misled and to promote New Zealand products.

But changes to the Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill mean foods like bacon — most of which is marketed as a New Zealand product, but actually made from imported pork — will not be included.

The Bill has been stripped down to its simplest form, a move committee chairman and National MP David Bennett said had the support of all political parties.

‘‘It gives the opportunity for future governments to add to it. They can always change the legislation and add more products,’’ he said.

‘‘There are some opportunities for a bit of flexibility going forward, but essentially it is a starting point legislation.’’

That has seriously frustrated industry groups which have advocated for clearer food labelling for years.

New Zealand Pork industry spokesman Ian Carter said New Zealand was trailing behind its major trading partners on this already.

He said you only need look at bacon to see why New Zealand needs the proposed law.

‘‘Sixty percent of pig meat consumed in New Zealand is imported now,’’ he said.

‘‘On top of that, most of your processed products — we believe it could be something like 85% of your bacon and ham — is imported meat.

‘‘And of that, 95% of it is produced in countries that wouldn’t meet New Zealand’s standards of farming.

‘‘It wouldn’t be legally allowed to be farmed in that method under New Zealand’s animal welfare laws.’’

That worries the Bill’s sponsor, Green MP Gareth Hughes.

‘‘It’s a bit odd for me as a vegetarian to be advocating for the New Zealand pork industry, but I think they have a really fair case,’’ he said.

‘‘As we’ve slowly ratcheted up our animal welfare standards in the pork industry, their sales have declined and we’re seeing a massive increase in imports of really lowquality animal welfare pork.

‘‘That’s a double whammy for them.’’

Mr Hughes said consumers were overwhelmingly in favour of mandatory labelling.

‘‘People want to buy New Zealand products because they’re the best products. But if they don’t have that information, how are they meant to make that choice?’’

Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin said 71% of people backed countryoforigin labelling on food in a nationally representative survey of consumers last year.

Sixtyfive percent also said they always looked for New Zealand products, and a third of them reported they could not always find them.

Ms Chetwin said the present voluntary labelling scheme did not work and the Bill as it now stood would not do much to alter that.

A spokesman for Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said positive progress was not being made on the Bill at select committee ‘‘and therefore we will be making amendments to the Bill via a SOP’’.

If any policy changes need to be made to a Bill after it has been through the policy and legislative Cabinet committee stages and been introduced, this is usually done through a supplementary order paper. — RNZ