Country of Origin Labelling

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#1260283 16-Mar-2015 14:11

Fred99:

Well yeah - When I see homemade cake etc at school fairs etc, I tend to think about the kitchen in a "cat-lady's" house.

I know some lovely cat ladies, with very clean kitchens.

Lias

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#1260284 16-Mar-2015 14:13

sbiddle:
Lias: Fan of it, and believe that the origin of all ingredients should be shown as well.

Are you a fan of the price of everything in a supermarket increasing by 100% as well to cover the costs of such a thing?

Nobody does that because maintaining such information is quite simply such a mundane and impossible task and the costs across the supply chain would be massive. Imagine if a producer of chocolate chips for example decided to swap out an ingredient - overnight you'd have thousands of downstream manufacturers who use those chocolate chips having to not only update their internal documentation but also throw out all packaging and replace it. That's why nobody does it - because it's simply impossible.

Show me a better way to let consumers not buy food made in 3rd world hellholes with no safety standards. Having something canned/boxed/whatever in NZ with dodgy 3rd world ingredients does not inspire any more confidence in me than if it were just made in a dodgy 3rd world hellhole in the first place.

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#1260286 16-Mar-2015 14:17

Linuxluver:

Where a product is made and where ingredients come from are two very different issues. The country of origin is where the product is manufactured or packaged and if it's not using ingredients that are all manufactured in that country, to label it as such, ie "contains local and/or imported ingredients". There is no requirement under FSANZ rules for Australia (and probably every other country in the world that has have mandatory COO labeling) to specify where individual products come from, because it would be impossible to comply with.

True.

Even if they order it from a supplier in country X, there is no guarantee that supplier didn't get some in from country Z because they had a local shortage in country X.

This happens with Pics Peanut butter.

They usually use Australian nuts but sometimes there's a shortage and they have to use Argentinian nuts - at which point, I cease to buy it until the Australian nuts come back.

kiwitrc

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#1260290 16-Mar-2015 14:23

Glassboy:
Fred99:

Well yeah - When I see homemade cake etc at school fairs etc, I tend to think about the kitchen in a "cat-lady's" house.

I know some lovely cat ladies, with very clean kitchens.

My first read of this was "with very clean kittens" and I was thinking what??? Got to slow down when reading stuff.

Glassboy

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#1260314 16-Mar-2015 15:01

kiwitrc:

My first read of this was "with very clean kittens" and I was thinking what??? Got to slow down when reading stuff.

Haven't you heard of furminators?

MikeAqua

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#1260349 16-Mar-2015 15:32

COO labelling is a nice feel-good for the green/organic lobby, but of limited effectiveness. For example I can make a product wholly from imported ingredients. Maybe some Chinese tomatoes, Spanish Paprika, Italian Olive Oil and NZ water and label it as 'Made in NZ from local and imported ingredients'. Please ...

Import standards are more important from a food safety perspective.

In the Pic's example both Australia and Argentinian will have to meet the same import standards, including things like maximum residual limits for chemicals.

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#1260355 16-Mar-2015 15:41

For toothpase I would be happy if they would start by putting the flavor on the pack instead of endless varieties of stuff that all tastes the same but has different BS feature lists on it. 2 shelves of colgate stuff and only a couple declare that they are some form of mint flavoured. Yuck.

At least the kids toothpaste has a decent range of tastes.

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#1260358 16-Mar-2015 15:43

Lias:
Show me a better way to let consumers not buy food made in 3rd world hellholes with no safety standards. Having something canned/boxed/whatever in NZ with dodgy 3rd world ingredients does not inspire any more confidence in me than if it were just made in a dodgy 3rd world hellhole in the first place.

Print the batch number on the packaging alongside the BB/Useby dates and allow the end user who actually cares to look it up online?

Richard rich.ms

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#1260364 16-Mar-2015 15:50

I personally think it should exist - solely because we have a joint food standard with Australia, with the goal being to ensure standardisation across both countries for products and labeling to lower compliance costs. Both countries should have the same rules.

Having said that COO is slightly more complex, and any company who is smart already pushes their product as NZ made already. If producers of product don't label their product (and pork is one classes example) it's fairly safe to assume that it's using imported product.

One issue with NZ is that people are obsessed by price, hence we live in a FMCG market where discounts drive sales across the whole industry. This differs significantly from Australia where the push for Australian made products (and loyalty towards them) is vastly stronger than what it is here where the vast majority of people don't care where their food comes from.

Glassboy

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#1260381 16-Mar-2015 16:10

CoO gets mixed up with wacky ideas about "food miles" and globalisation. The truth is foodstuffs have been travelling around the global for thousands of years, very few cuisines are made up of endemic ingredients.

sbiddle

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#1260390 16-Mar-2015 16:16

Glassboy: CoO gets mixed up with wacky ideas about "food miles" and globalisation. The truth is foodstuffs have been travelling around the global for thousands of years, very few cuisines are made up of endemic ingredients.

Exactly. And people expecting to get a product 365 days per year.

I think it's hilarious every year when people start commenting on Italian kiwifruit in stores between Jan and March, with the occasional load of Californian Kiwifruit arriving in December if NZ supplies finish early.

Going back 10+ years ago there was no fresh kiwifruit available for 3-4 months each year because NZ product would run out at Xmas time and there would be none until new season product appeared in March/April.

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#1260467 16-Mar-2015 17:17

I dislike the fact you buy Waite's peaches with the impression you will get some nice Hawkes Bay fruits buy it is actually made in China. Or a smoked salmon brand with a NZ reference in the name that actually comes from the Philippines.

And so on. If possible I try not to buy anything made in China.

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#1260472 16-Mar-2015 17:27

Absolutely overdue.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

floydbloke

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#1260473 16-Mar-2015 17:28

Linuxluver: How do people feel about country of origin labelling?

...

Surprised at times.

Currently New Zealand farms produce around 700,000 pigs a year. New Zealand pork doesn’t get exported. (source: http://www.nzpork.co.nz/farming-pigs-in-nz/pig-farming). I bought a couple of whole (frozen) racks of ribs from a butcher a few months back, they came from Finland. I guess we need to grow more pigs.

I bought a sheet of plywood a few weeks ago, then noticed it had "Product of Chile" stamped on it. In 2012 NZ exported $800M worth of sawn timber. I can't figure it out.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

MikeB4

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#1260474 16-Mar-2015 17:32

I would like to see it detailed, if we are buying flavourings etc for Thai or Chinese cooking we want to know we are getting genuine items from China or Thailand and not some substitute.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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