Damien
O’CONNOR
Food Safety Spokesperson
4 February 2014 MEDIA STATEMENT
Nikki Kaye needs to COOL it
National has once again missed an opportunity to introduce mandatory country of origin labelling, Labour’s Food Safety
spokesperson Damien O’Connor says.
“Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye has spent the past year tweaking parts of the Food Bill.
“Today she’s talking about aligning food recall provisions to ‘provide greater protection for the public during food
safety incidents’.
“What she should be doing is insisting on proper labelling. That would provide greater protection for the public each
and every day.
“New Zealand consumers overwhelmingly want to know where the food they are eating comes from, yet for some reason the
Government appears ignorant of the fact.
“While we supposedly work under the joint Australia/New Zealand Food Standards Code New Zealand continues to exclude
itself from Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) regulations.
“Kiwis want clear information about their food. Providing them with the same information and protection our Australian
neighbours receive shouldn’t be too difficult a task.”
ENDS