Business owners say consumers paying premiums for organic products are being ripped off because of a lack of national standards.
Australian Organic Limited chief executive Niki Ford said Australia was the only developed country in the world not to have consistent domestic regulation for organic products.
She said statistics showed 33 per cent of consumers had been misled into buying organic products that were not actually certified.
“So that’s a whole third of organic consumers that are distrusting the industry,” she said.
“You can simply put organic on your packaging in Australia if you have one [organic] ingredient or you simply claim a process has been undertaken with no verification — and the ACCC aren’t able to stop this.”
Ms Ford said there was a definition difference between certified organic and organic in Australia that did not exist anywhere else in the world.
“If you ask for an organic product in the US or in Germany, you’ll get a certified organic product … we don’t have that definition here,” she said.
Key points:
- Australia’s organic industry says the federal government is preventing mandatory organic regulation
- It says without legislation, shoppers are being misled by organic labels
- Agriculture Minister Murray Watt says extra regulation would hurt smaller players and drive up the price of food
Read More at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-03-18/organics-regulation-needs-tightening-consumers-being-misled/102110460