The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) and the National Consumer Commission (NCC) will host a seminar on Food Labelling and Consumer Protection in South Africa at Diep in die Berg in Pretoria on Wednesday, 25 November 2015 at 09hh00.
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, the mislabeling of various food products is common in South Africa and does not only violates food regulations but also poses a number of economic, ethical as well as health challenges.
“Consumers face violations such as offering products with expired dates, defacing of labels, no labels and overall failure to label properly. Government is therefore not only concerned about the failure of some entities in the food value chain to stick to the parameters of the law in order to ensure consumer safety but also the impact mislabeling has on producers, importers and retailers of various food products. The inappropriate disclosure of country of origin particularly creates challenges for both consumers and companies and hence the need to adhere to the rules of origin parameters as commonly accepted in international trade,” says Minister Davies.
The seminar is a follow up to food labelling challenges that were identified in the recent past, including the issues identified in the report on species substitution and mislabelling detected in meat products as well as the investigations conducted by the NCC.
“The seminar will take a holistic view in respect of how issues of food labelling affect consumers, the domestic as well as the offensive interests of South African companies abroad. The seminar will focus on the trends and developments in respect of the labelling of food products in the consumer market, the food labelling regulations within the context of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) of 2008 in South Africa and the respective state of enforcement/compliance or lack thereof, the risks and consequences of misrepresentation and non-compliance with food labelling regulations, country of origin food labelling requirements as well as the approaches to effectively enforce food labelling regulations in the country,” adds Minister Davies.
The seminar will target all stakeholders in the food industry specifically food industry associations in the various sub-sectors, policy makers, retailers, importers, exporters, regulators, lobby groups, activists, academics and other experts concerned with food labelling and consumer protection issues.
“It is envisaged that the wide range of participants will contribute towards the strengthening of current approaches as well as debate the best practices to deal with the violation of food labelling regulations. It will also solicit different views on how the Consumer Protection Act can be enhanced to the advantage of consumers and producers. To this end, one of the seminar outcomes is the development of initiatives to enhance food labelling regulations and strategies in the country,” says Minister Davies.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe-Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
