Food Regulation Standing Committee Consultation: Policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online

Overview

Consumers are increasingly shopping for food online. The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code requires most prepackaged foods to bear a label with certain mandatory information. However, there is currently no guidance or explicit requirements on what information must be provided to inform consumers’ purchasing decisions when food is sold online.

Australia and New Zealand share a joint system for food labelling and composition which is overseen by Food Ministers. Food Ministers are responsible for developing food regulation policies in the form of policy guidelines, and to ensure stakeholder views are considered on appropriate policies. 

The Food Regulation Standing Committee has developed a draft policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online. This policy guideline intends to clearly establish Australian and New Zealand Food Ministers’ expectations that consumers shopping online have access to necessary information to make safe and informed purchasing decisions.

A policy guideline is not a regulatory requirement. Policy guidelines need to be taken into consideration by Food Standards Australia New Zealand when developing or reviewing food regulatory measures. This policy guideline will be used to inform any future work on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online in the trans-Tasman food regulation system.

Why your views matter

The Food Regulation Standing Committee is seeking your feedback on a new policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online.  

We want to know your views on:

• Whether you support developing a policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online; and
• The draft policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online.

Your views will be used to inform Food Ministers' decisions on whether to develop a policy guideline on information requirements for prepackaged food sold online and the content of this policy guideline.

Please read the accompanying consultation document that provides context to the consultation, including what is being proposed and why. This can be found under the ‘related’ section at the bottom of this page.

You can submit your views through the online survey. The questions in the survey match the questions in the consultation document. A preview of the survey is available for download under the ‘related’ section at the bottom of this page.

Please provide evidence or examples wherever possible to support your comments. You can upload any supporting documents and evidence at the last question. If you do upload any documents, please indicate which question this document supports.

Although not mandatory, we encourage you to respond to all questions.

All submissions are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 in Australia and the Official Information Act 1982 in New Zealand. There are grounds for withholding certain information, such as commercially sensitive information. Please indicate in your response if you consider there are aspects of your submission which contain commercially sensitive information.