If you sell food in Australia, the new country of origin labelling law may apply to your products.

The law applies to food offered for retail sale in Australia, including in stores or markets, online or from a vending machine. The law does not apply to food sold in places like restaurants, cafes, take-away shops, schools, or to food provided by caterers.

Businesses will have time to adjust over a two-year transition period, this means food products packaged up until 1 July 2018 can be sold without the new labels.

The country of origin food labelling guide will help businesses comply with the new requirements.

How to get the new labels

Your business will have two years until the new labels are mandatory but you can start designing your own new labels now, or use the country of origin labelling online tool to generate labels for you.

Visit the country of origin label library on Business.gov.au.  You will be able to access information to design your own new labels, including the:

• Information standard - sets out the correct label for each food product
• Style guide - shows how your label should look and be applied to your product (video format available)
• Label parts and orientation - download relevant label parts
• Online tool - helps you to determine if you need a label, and if you do, it will then find, customise and download the appropriate label for your food products.

Country of origin labels

The new labels will show a:

• triangle kangaroo symbol showing the Australian origin
• bar chart and statement showing the percentage of Australian ingredients.

To find out more visit country of origin food labelling page on Business.gov.au website.

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Other logos and symbols

There are a number of recognised logos which indicate where food has been made or grown, for example, growers often have their own 'stickers' identifying their company or region, for example WA citrus fruit.

More information about the logos or symbols is available from:

• Australian Made
• WA Birthmark 
• Buy West Eat Best 

All symbols, if used incorrectly or deemed to be false, misleading or deceptive, may have penalties under the Australian Consumer Law.