A summary of regulatory developments in food law in Australia and internationally for the month of November 2021.

The recent addition of nicotine vaping products to the Poisons Standard highlights the significance that the Poisons Standard can play in developing the formulation of food products that are ingested or consumed in a manner well beyond inhalation. This article addresses the influence the Poisons Standard has on aspects of product development or other aspects of regulation of food products. This article provides further illustrative guidance.

Rice-based baby food has been in the news headlines lately due to potentially concerning levels of arsenic and other heavy metals. Infants and young children are vulnerable consumers, and the levels of contaminants to which they are exposed are assessed with greater scrutiny due to the lower body weight and thus lower levels of contaminants they can tolerate. This article covers why arsenic is of concern, its toxicological limits, how arsenic gets into rice, how it can be measured in the laboratory and on the field, and the regulatory limits for arsenic in baby food (if any) in Australia and other major jurisdictions, as well as pertinent international standards. Finally, the article discusses the levels of arsenic in rice products on the Australian market and the need for further regulatory measures regarding inorganic arsenic in baby food.

A food producer seeking to reduce its carbon emissions or even just marketing its food products with an environmentally-friendly attribute, may want to consider the making of a ‘carbon claim’. Yet the very concept of a ‘carbon claim’ can have a range of different meanings. For example, one type of carbon claim might be a claim that relies on the measurement of carbon emissions in production being calculated to be low by reference to a particular ‘carbon calculator’ (e.g. possibly referencing a specified certification scheme). However, another option for a different type of carbon claim might not necessarily involve direct reduction of carbon emissions in the food production process. A business might purchase ‘carbon credits’ that will “offset” the carbon emissions of production but rely on this offset to make a claim that the producer has thereby produced carbon emissions in this other way. This article considers the current regulatory framework in Australia for making a carbon offset claim.