A summary of regulatory developments in food in Australia and internationally for the month of June 2022.

In April and May 2022, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) released two proposals that will consider whether to impose mandatory energy labelling of alcoholic beverages and the inclusion of added sugars in the nutrition information panel (NIP). In this article, we consider the effect these two proposals may have on the labelling of alcoholic beverages.

The New Zealand government plans to introduce legislation for a new regulatory regime for therapeutic products in New Zealand in late 2022. This article examines the nature and implications of the proposed changes to New Zealand’s therapeutics regulatory regime.

With consumers and businesses increasingly considering the environmental aspects of products and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) initiating enforcement actions against ‘greenwashing’ claims, many food businesses need to appreciate the limits and restrictions on promoting their environmental and sustainability claims. Whilst environmental sustainability has many attributes, two of the most common environment-related claims pertain to the descriptions ‘recyclable’ and ‘recycled’. This article explains various differences between these two descriptions, and considers some of the important issues that a food or packaging business should consider when referencing ‘recyclable’ or ‘recycled’ in relation to their products or packaging.