What is an ingredient when determining weight?

All ingredients in a food will be counted when deciding the weight except for:

• Processing aids – this is something with a technological purpose in processing raw materials, food or ingredients but doesn’t perform a technological purpose in the final food. For example, yeast added to bread to make it rise is a processing aid.
• Water – water is usually counted as an ingredient except when it is used to reconstitute dehydrated or concentrated ingredients. The other exception is when water is used as a liquid packing medium for food eg a brine or water in a can of tuna. Water in a liquid packing medium is only counted as an ingredient if it can be consumed as part of the food – if you can’t eat it, it

Designing and displaying labels

The design and use of a label must comply with the requirements of the Standard. The wording should be:

• legible
• prominent so it contrasts with the background of the label
• in English.

Labels must contain all the required parts eg the kangaroo, bar chart and text. It must be displayed as a whole and not split across packaging or label displays.

All packaged food must carry a country of origin label, either a standard mark for priority food or country or origin statement for non-priority food.

For unpackaged food the label can be displayed either on, or close to the product eg on a shelf, hanging sign or display card. It must be clear which product the sign is referring to and be relevant to customers.

There are minimum type size requirements for unpackaged foods. If the food item is in a refrigerated service display cabinet, the text size for the label must be at least five millimetres. In all other circumstances the text must be at least nine millimetres.

An online tool to help you find, customise and download your own labels is available on business.gov.au

https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/goods-and-services/selling-goods-and-services/selling-goods/country-of-origin-food-labelling/country-of-origin-labelling-online-tool

Further Information

• Country of Origin food labelling booklet from the ACCC website: https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/country-of-origin-food-labelling
• Country of origin food labelling: tips and traps video on: https://www.youtube.com/user/ACCCvideos
• ACCC website at: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/groceries/country-of-origin

Flowchart – Do  need to display a country of origin on my food product?