Farming – Food Certification and Labelling

FARMING 

FOOD CERTIFICATION AND LABELLING

The call, some years back, for the Federal Parliament to determine a free-range egg and the community disquiet over the spread of Halal certification of many products has caused, we believe, that a new approach must be launched to manage all certifications and food labeling.

Policy:

Christians for Community will create within the Department of Consumer Affairs a register of Certification of a product to be created and to be approved by the Department. An application for certification must:

  • State the purpose of the certification and the manner and process of seeing that a product complies with the details of the certification.

  • The manner of inspections and any cost associated with the whole process and for how the process and funds raised can be independently verified.

  • If the charges for the certification are designed to raise excess funds for a secondary purpose then the full disclosure of the end user of the funds must be demonstrated and to be independently verified.

  • That there be no pressure for business to sign up to any certification, but that any association must be voluntary entered into and as such the process of expanding influence must be demonstrated as open and free.

  • There will need to be a fee set for the application so that the process will be as far as possible close to revenue neutral to the department.

  • All details must be available for full public examination without a fee.

The C4C calls for a clear and self-explanatory Labelling

The C4C calls for a clear and self-explanatory labelling system to be applied so that consumers can make informed decisions in accordance with their health and dietary requirements as well as including their religious beliefs.

  • Components of ingredients must be listed

  • Country of origin of ingredients and processing must be disclosed

  • If genetic modification is used it must be declared

  • Potential health concerns must be disclosed

  • Fat, salt, nut, lactose, gluten and other known possible dietary concerns must be disclosed.

  • Certainty of compliance of production of product to labeling must be established