The Australia New Zealand Food Authority advises progress on the following matters relating to food standards.
You can get further information on each of these matters (including advice on the authority's policy regarding submissions, where applicable) from our website www.anzfa.govt.nz or from:
The Information Officer
Australia New Zealand Food Authority
P.O. Box 10-559
The Terrace
Wellington
Telephone: (04) 473 9942
Facsimile: (04) 473 9855
Email: nz.reception@anzfa.gov.au
Call For Submissions-Matters at Full Assessment
The authority has prepared the following proposal and will now make a full assessment of it.
You are invited to present written submissions to the authority on this matter, including the potential regulatory impact on consumers, industry and government, by Wednesday, 25 October 2000:
o Health and Related Claims (Proposal P153)-A proposal to review the current regulations relating to
the prohibition on health claims in Australia and
New Zealand. The purpose of this proposal is to clarify the intent of the current regulations and ensure that they
are clear and enforceable and determine whether the current prohibition on health claims in Australia and
New Zealand should be lifted. The proposal also considers if health claims are to be permitted, under what policy framework should a health claims system be allowed to proceed.
The supporting document for this matter also seeks comment on the draft inquiry report for the Folate Health Claims Pilot (Proposal P170)-The pilot was initiated by the direction given in March 1998 by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Family Services. The authority is obliged by the ANZFA Act to hold an inquiry in relation to the variation to Standard A1 - Labelling and Advertising, prepared in relation to the Proposal.
Matters Before Council
The authority has completed its inquiries into the variations to standards prepared at full assessment of the following matters and has made recommendations to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council that the variations be adopted into the Food Standards Code:
o Labelling of Foods containing Alcohol (Proposal P219)-A proposal to require that all foods containing a concentration of greater than 1.15% alcohol by volume be labelled with a statement of the alcohol concentration of the product.
o Folate Health Claims - Extension of Time (Proposal P222)-A proposal to extend the sunset date for the pilot.