Requirements for food composition are set out in Chapters 1 and 2 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).
The Code has requirements around:
There are also compositional Standards for certain categories of foods. For example, there are requirements for the amount of fat free meat that must be in a sausage. These Standards are found in Chapter 2 of the Code.
Food labelling informs the consumer of the properties of food offered for sale. The labelling requirements for foods sold in Australia are set out in Chapter 1 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.
This includes the requirements to list information on packaging such as business names and address, food identification, warning statements (inc. allergens), ingredients, date marking and storage conditions and nutrition information. See Food labelling guide for businesses for details on labelling requirements.
The South Australian Food Act 2001, prohibits the sale of food that is falsely described or is labelled or advertised in a way that is misleading.
The South Australian Food Regulations 2017 require multiple-site food businesses (chain food outlets) to display certain nutrition information at the point of sale. The information that needs to be displayed is:
SA Health has produced a User Guide for Display of Kilojoules at Multiple-Site Food Businesses (PDF 838KB) which explains the requirements in more detail.
Multiple-site food business that are required to comply with legislation are those which have 20 or more outlets in South Australia, or 50 or more in Australia nationally.
If a business opens their 20th outlet in South Australia they have to comply with the legislation, but they have 12 months to do so. The 12 month compliance also applies if they open their 50th outlet nationally.
Supermarkets, convenience stores, caterers, not-for-profit delivered meal organisations and outlets where food is only sold for the consumption on the premises on which it is sold are exempted from the legislation.
Kilojoule information is also not required for loaves of bread, plain bread rolls or standardised food items that are sold for less than 60 consecutive days on a trial basis at five or less locations in South Australia.
