Country of origin food labeling bill passes third reading

Food of origin labelling for fresh food will be phased in in under two years, once the law has been signed off. Photo / File

You'll now know where your sizzling bacon comes from after pork products were included in a food-labelling bill.

The Consumers' Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill, which requires food to carry country of origin labelling, passed its third reading in Parliament last night with almost unanimous support — all parties except Act.

The member's bill was in the name of Green Party MP Gareth Hughes, who took over from former Green MP Steffan Browning when he resigned at the last election.

The foods covered are those with only one ingredient which is unprocessed or subject to minimal processing.

They include fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, seafood and meat, including cured pork products such as ham and bacon. Tinned vegetables and fruit, and frozen mixed vegetables will not be covered.

Hughes said the bill contained powers under the Fair Trading Act for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi to add more foods later.

The law change was initially designed to cover all single-ingredient foods but the parliamentary committee said it was better to start with a simple approach.

There had been concern that cured pork products were not included in the bill but Hughes said there was a late inclusion during the select committee process which made the bill more palatable.

"We got bacon and pork products back into the bill. We got bacon in, literally in the 11th hour," Hughes said.

"That was a biggie because 85 per cent of our bacon and ham comes from overseas and 95 per cent of that's from countries with worse animal welfare standards."

National's food safety spokesman Nathan Guy said the committee had made changes to the bill to get it to a stage where National could support it. Act leader David Seymour said the law would effectively act as a new tax on consumers.

Once the law is signed off, there will be 18 months for regulations to be put in place before the new labels are phased in over six months for fresh food and two years for frozen.