Today, the Australian dairy industry called on the Federal Government to stop allowing plant-based products to misuse and leverage dairy terms, and to misrepresent dairy nutrition.
“The issue of plant-based products falsely leveraging the dairy industry is a long-standing problem in this country,” said Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC) Chair Rick Gladigau.
At a public hearing for the Senate inquiry into the definitions of meat and other animal products, ADIC representatives called on government to support measures to address this market failure.
Mr Gladigau said the Australian dairy industry had extremely strict standards of identity to be able to call a product milk, cheese or yoghurt.
“We follow strict standards of identity for all our products that gives us permission to use those dairy terms, and unfortunately the plant-based products don’t have that,” the ADIC delegates said. The plant-based products go to market with a huge variation in nutrition, and with little evidence to support the health and sustainability claims that they are making, Mr Gladigau said.
“On our retail shelves, we see plant-based products using dairy terms or descriptors like ‘milk’ and ‘cheese’ despite not having those terms in their ingredients; images of cows being used in marketing despite cows not being part of the production process; and statements that infer nutritional equivalence to or better than dairy despite the contrary,” said Mr Gladigau. “This is a clear market failure in the form of an information asymmetry, which requires government intervention.”
The dairy industry has been advocating for fair labelling and marketing since the 1980s.
Mr Gladigau told the Senators that as a minimum the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code needed amendment. Specifically, ADIC calls for the removal of Clause 1.1.1-13(4) from the Code. This states that “if a food name is used in connection with the sale of a food (for example in the labelling), the sale is taken to be a sale of the food as the named food unless the context makes it clear that this is not the intention”.
The clause uses “milk” as an example by saying “the context within which foods such as soy milk or soy ice cream are sold is indicated by use of the name soy; indicating that the product is not a dairy product to which a dairy standard applies”.
Mr Gladigau said Australia needed to address its non-compliance with the Codex Alimentarius, the global collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by over 180 countries, including Australia. It is governed by a commission established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Codex General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms (CODEX STAN 269) sensibly defines milk as coming from mammals and sets out where, when and how dairy terms may be used and where they may not.
“We find it unacceptable that Australia is a signatory to an international standard or agreement and has consistently failed for a very long time to comply,” Mr Gladigau said.
As Mr Gladigau highlighted to the Senate inquiry, many other countries are ensuring compliance to Codex by either banning the misuse of dairy terms outright, like in Europe and Canada, or by requiring clear distinction between the two, like in the United States.
Mr Gladigau called on Australia to follow suit, saying there was proof that Australian consumers’ perceptions about dairy products had been affected by the misuse of processed, plant-based alternatives to dairy.
He highlighted the results of the annual Dairy Australia Trust Tracker survey that has found every year since 2018, that between 45 and 54 per cent of respondents said the main reason for buying plant-based beverages is because they believe them to be healthier than dairy milk – when that is not the case.
Mr Gladigau heighted the work that Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF), of which he is the President, and the Australian Dairy Products Federation (ADPF) have done in the industry taskforce designed to obtain consensus on this issue.
“In the spirit of this intent and knowing the difficulty we have had previously on achieving regulatory change, we agreed to develop a voluntary industry guideline to resolve this issue,” said Mr Gladigau. “If this can be produced and is successful, then we would be happy with that outcome. If not, then we call on all political parties to agree to a policy of changing the Food Standards Code consistent with what I have outlined.”
Janine Waller, Executive Director at ADPF, said the Australian dairy industry had agreed to a voluntary approach as a pragmatic measure, but that it required clear compliance measures and an early review period. A regulatory change, such as removal of the clause 1.1.1.13 (4) in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code remained a long-term goal, Ms Waller said.
Craig Hough, Director of Strategy and Policy at ADF, and Melissa Cameron, Human Health and Nutrition Policy Manager at Dairy Australia, provided policy and technical expertise to the ADIC at the hearing.
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About the Australian Dairy Industry Council
The Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC) is the dairy industry’s peak policy body. The ADIC co-ordinates industry’s policy and represents all sectors of the industry on national and international issues through its two constituent bodies, Australian Dairy Farmers Ltd (ADF) and the Australian Dairy Products Federation (ADPF). It aims to foster, promote and protect the interests of the Australian dairy industry by driving a whole of industry approach to dairy policy and the development of the dairy industry.
Media contact: Mark Paterson, Currie, mark@curriecommunications.com.au +61 (0) 409 411 110.