After extensive consultation with industry and consumers, the Australian Government announced a proposed new country of origin food labelling (CoOL) system on 21 July 2015.

The new system will see the continuation of mandatory country of origin labelling for most food offered for retail sale in Australia. In addition to a statement about where the food was produced, grown, made or packaged, most Australian food will carry the familiar kangaroo symbol and an indication of the proportion of Australian ingredients by weight through a statement and a bar graph. The new system will also see clearer rules around when food labels can carry ‘made in’ or ‘packed in’ statements.

While Australia already has mandatory CoOL for food, consumers find current origin labels confusing or unhelpful. The Australian Government proposed a new system to deliver clearer and more consistent country of origin food labels without imposing excessive cost on industry.