Australian Food Ingredients at least 80% indicates that 80% of the ingredients in a food are Australian. Under Australian law, certain Food Products must show the percentage of ingredients that are grown, produced or made in Australia. They do this by showing country of origin mark (the Australian Made Kangaroo logo); a bar chart showing the percentage of Australian content (by ingoing weight); and a text statement declaring the exact percentage of ingredients as indicated in this image.
The ACCC outlines that the key country of origin claims mean different things:
When a food has not been grown, produced or made in a single country, it will display a label identifying the country it was packed in. It is illegal for a business to make a claim that goods were grown, produced, made or packed in a particular country when this was not the case.
Knowing what percentage of a product is made in Australia allows consumers to make educated choices. Australian Made tells consumers, businesses and government that a product is genuinely Australian, made and grown to Australia’s high quality, health and safety standards. You can get more information on this Certification on the Australian Government website.
EKKO SCORE: Australian Food Ingredients at least 80% sits in the AUSTRALIAN COMPONENTS Family under the Environmental Standard: Place of Origin of Ekko Score. One set of weighted Ekko Score points are gathered from each Family.
These are the claimable declarations & certifications under the Environmental Standard: Place of Origin. Please note that different certifications and declarations may be relevant to each category.
Yes, where the impact of the claim is similar. This is how it works.
IMPORTANTLY, SELF DECLARATIONS ARE GOVERNED BY CONSUMER LAW. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW FOR BUSINESSES TO MAKE FALSE CLAIMS (INCLUDING IMPLIED CLAIMS IN A CONTEXT LIKE EKKO SCORE).
EVEN IF A PRODUCT HAS A FORMAL CERTIFICATION, THAT CERTIFICATION DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE ENTIRE INTEGRITY OF THE PRODUCT'S MAKE UP.
An example might be a Handmade, Australian, Certified Organic chocolate that contains Palm Oil. Under Ekko Score, this product would claim Certified Organic and would self declare: Zero Waste Production and Australian made, but could not claim the No Palm Oil declaration. This would mean a lower score under the Organic - Chemical Free Standard, making the inclusion of Palm Oil clear to potential consumers, without detracting from its other assets.
No product is perfect, but some products are definitely better than others. Ekko Score allows you to make the best decision you can, or to put it another way, the least worst decision. And to make that decision with the confidence of not being green washed. Find out more about how Ekko Score works.