Government might go ahead anyway in face of food standards setback.

New Zealand has failed in its attempt to salvage nutritional labelling on infant formula.

The government has indicated it might take unilateral action, but this is still to be decided.

The problem stems from health-motivated restrictions on packaging of infant formula in order in order to promote breastfeeding.  This process has been developed by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ).

At an FSANZ meeting with fellow ministers from Australian states and the federal government on Thursday, Minister of Food Safety Andrew Hoggard sought a review of those rules, saying they could harm New Zealand exports. The request was turned down.

A communique from FSANZ made clear there would be restrictions on labelling and noted further that New Zealand “will be considering their option to opt out of the standard”.

This was later confirmed by Hoggard, though he noted any action towards separate standard setting would have to await further consideration by the government here.

Going it alone would sever New Zealand’s links with a trans-Tasman standard that has a lot of administrative and marketing convenience for producers.

But Hoggard has said New Zealand exports could be inhibited if producers here cannot put labels on the front of their packaging showing the nutritional content of infant formula. He said European Union countries are able to do this, and so would have an advantage over New Zealand sales in important markets like China.

Infant formula producers here have long concurred that breastfeeding is desirable from a health point of view, but women who need infant formula for whatever reason should still have access to the full nutritional content of the food they are feeding their babies.

The infant formula market is worth about $2 billion a year.

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