24 November 2000 Media Statement

ANZFSC makes late decision on special foods

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council, which earlier today adopted New Zealand's move to include mandatory labelling of saturated fats and sugars in the joint Australia-New Zealand food standards code, has also decided to retain compositional standards for special foods.

Health Minister Annette King says today's ANZFSC meeting in Sydney had earlier decided that a taskforce should look at the retention of compositional standards for special foods, such as peanut butter, jams, icecreams, chocolate, yoghurts and fruit juice drinks.

"However, ministers from the meeting returned to that decision later in the day, and have now decided it is more logical to retain compositional standards for such special foods."

Mrs King said the taskforce would still consider the issue of whether there should be a threshold at which very small boutique businesses could opt in or out of having mandatory nutrition information panels on their products.

ENDS

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