Damien

O’CONNOR

Spokesperson for Primary Industries

Food Safety Spokesperson

19 February 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Cool labelling or fool labelling…there’s a difference

Claims that Chinese vegetables, labelled as ‘New Zealand made’, are being exported to Australia are a serious risk to our reputation and make a mockery of our food labelling laws, Labour’s Primary Industries and Food Safety spokesperson Damien O’Connor says.

“New Zealand’s confusing labelling laws are clearly not working. The system is misleading and our trans-Tasman trade relationships are ultimately be at risk

“New Zealand needs strong and effective Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) to secure our international reputation for safe food production.

“Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith recently criticised the quality of ‘New Zealand’ beetroot. The facts are, under the current labelling system we can’t be sure that the New Zealand beetroot he was criticising was actually grown here and not in China

“The whole food system - run by multinational companies and supermarkets - leaves growers of New Zealand’s quality produce exposed to contamination through imported produce.

“This is not a scenario that farmers or consumers expect from trans-Tasman food safety systems.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media