Latest / Best of Business / Andrew Hoggard: Minister for Food Safety on the potential changes coming for infant formula laws

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Andrew Hoggard: Minister for Food Safety on the potential changes coming for infant formula laws · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks Be follow
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  Speaker 2: Back to those proposed rules around infant formula, the proposal
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  Speaker 2: to the proposal is to white label the cans of
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  Speaker 2: formula and then take some of the cans out of supermarkets.
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  Speaker 2: And these proposals come from Food Safety of Food Standards
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  Speaker 2: Australia and New Zealand. They set the rules around food
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  Speaker 2: for both of the countries. But whether this actually happens
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  Speaker 2: seems to lie in the hands of the food ministers
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  Speaker 2: from both countries. They will meet on Thursday. Our Minister
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  Speaker 2: for Food Safety is Andrew Hogart is with me. Now, hey, Andrew,
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  Speaker 2: do you like this idea or hate it?
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  Speaker 3: Not a Well, there's lots, there's about six hundred pages
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  Speaker 3: to the whole standard. Most of it's good. This part
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  Speaker 3: around the labeling requirements we're not in favor of. Why basically,
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  Speaker 3: there's an economic costumers also a consumer information issue here.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's going to restrict the ability for people
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  Speaker 3: to say whether this is organic product, whether it's got
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  Speaker 3: A two in it, whether it doesn't contain additives, and
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  Speaker 3: a range of other little things like that that it's
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  Speaker 3: sort of all put on the you're only allowed to
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  Speaker 3: put it on the nutrition panel on the back, so
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  Speaker 3: you know, I'm not happy with not treating people like adults.
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  Speaker 3: And then on the economic side, it's going to put
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  Speaker 3: products at a disadvantage in the commerce trade in China
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  Speaker 3: compared to European products. So those are sort of the
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  Speaker 3: reasons why. You know, it's only a small part of
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  Speaker 3: the whole standard. Overall, there's a lot of good in
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  Speaker 3: the standard, but we're going to ask for a review
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  Speaker 3: on this part to try and try and get the
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  Speaker 3: whole thing looking good some of.
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  Speaker 2: If you read a little bit in depth in this
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  Speaker 2: particular proposal, there's also a call for some of the
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  Speaker 2: stuff to be taken off the supermarket shelves and only
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  Speaker 2: sold by dietitians and pharmacies and doctors and so on.
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  Speaker 2: It's a subcategory called special medical Purpose Products for infants,
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  Speaker 2: but we are struggling to figure out exactly what that covers,
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  Speaker 2: do you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, the best of my knowledge, it's what my second
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  Speaker 3: daughter was on. She had reactions to her formula that
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  Speaker 3: she was on, and she had to go on to
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  Speaker 3: a special product that the doctor recommended, so that wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: cause exner in her. And so I mean that was
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  Speaker 3: the you know, we found she was getting exmer But.
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  Speaker 2: I mean they can just be that could just be
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  Speaker 2: goat milk, right, are we talking about just goat milk?
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  Speaker 3: No, we went to goat milk first? Well yes, no,
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  Speaker 3: not goat milk. This will be like those free and
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  Speaker 3: then it gets even more specialized than that.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew at the moment, can you buy that stuff in
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  Speaker 2: the supermarket?
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  Speaker 3: Apparently yes, but I'm not I know for us, we
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  Speaker 3: we actually got it through the chemist. And this was.
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  Speaker 2: The German producer who's recently had a baby, says, you
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  Speaker 2: can get it on the supermarket shelf. Now what's the thing, Like,
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  Speaker 2: what's the logic in this? Why would we take it
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  Speaker 2: off the supermarket shelves. I'm not going to go and
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  Speaker 2: buy this stuff from my baby. It's expensive if I
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  Speaker 2: don't need to, So what are we trying to prevent?
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  Speaker 3: To be honest, it's the questions I've been asking and
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  Speaker 3: I'll continue to ask on Thursday. The best answer I've
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  Speaker 3: had is that people could be I don't know, think
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  Speaker 3: that they're by buying a special product, they're buying something
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  Speaker 3: very good for their baby, and they're feeding their babies
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  Speaker 3: something they don't need to be fed, so like an
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  Speaker 3: elergen free product which may actually encourage eligence later in life.
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  Speaker 3: So it's the best example of being given. But I'll
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  Speaker 3: certainly be asking more questions on that one.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew, how have we got to the point where we
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  Speaker 2: have people who are setting standards for our food treating
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  Speaker 2: something which keeps babies alive as a prohibited product.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this goes all the way back to how it was.
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  Speaker 3: The review was set up where I guess the focus
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  Speaker 3: was solely on health and the infant formula in particularly.
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  Speaker 3: You've got coming out of who you know, a real
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  Speaker 3: push and it's been there for many years that there
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  Speaker 3: shouldn't be very little advertising of infant formula because otherwise
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  Speaker 3: take away from the whole rest best argument, and I
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  Speaker 3: think that's the over round writing sort of philosophy behind
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  Speaker 3: all this stuff. Quite frankly, I would much prefer that
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  Speaker 3: is it safe. If it's safe, then you know, let
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  Speaker 3: people make informed choices.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so you said you're going to call for a review,
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  Speaker 2: which essentially is the thing that kind of you know,
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  Speaker 2: that stops this from happening at least in the short term.
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  Speaker 3: Are they well reviews the section? So I've only got
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  Speaker 3: two options. Either I call for a review or I
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  Speaker 3: say we'll have modified standard here in New Zealand. So
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  Speaker 3: we'll call for a review, and if I'm not supported
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  Speaker 3: by the other ministers then we will in all likelihood
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  Speaker 3: call for a modify.
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  Speaker 2: And what do you mean you must have talked to them, Andrew?
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  Speaker 2: Are they going to what are the Australians saying? Are
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  Speaker 2: they keen on us?
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  Speaker 3: See the issue? And it's fair to say, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'll be raising it again and hopefully they get the
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  Speaker 3: sense that I'm pretty strong on this.
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  Speaker 2: And how many of these ministers are women.
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  Speaker 3: I think I might be in a minority in this group.
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  Speaker 3: I think there's one the worse. I won't come in
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  Speaker 3: on that, Heaver, I'll let you do.
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  Speaker 2: That, Okay, fair enough. I think there's a wise decision actually, Andrew, okay, listen,
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  Speaker 2: just tell me really quickly. So on the review, you
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  Speaker 2: call for a review, if they support it. Let's say
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  Speaker 2: that there's a review. Does that actually stop it in
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  Speaker 2: its tracks or does it just delay it?
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  Speaker 3: You does the review of Achille for these parts around
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  Speaker 3: the labeling requirements. Yes, of looking into because there wasn't
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  Speaker 3: economic analysis done on this part. So we're looking at
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  Speaker 3: the economic analysis the impact on particular New Zealand because
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  Speaker 3: there are a few reasons if we can call for
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  Speaker 3: a review. One is because we don't believe it's consistent
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  Speaker 3: with global standards and there's a part of that because
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  Speaker 3: the user they able to not do this stuff. And
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  Speaker 3: also economic impact and safety of course, so you know
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  Speaker 3: we'll be focusing on the review around the primarily around
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  Speaker 3: the economic impact this will have on New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: Andrew, best of luck. I hear you're flying out to
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  Speaker 2: deal with this tomorrow, so go well. That's Andrew Hoggard,
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  Speaker 2: the Minister for Food Safety.
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  Speaker 1: Women.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, women, Hay, always the bigger problem, isn't it. It's
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  Speaker 2: always women who are the big problem for women. Dudes,
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  Speaker 2: chill about this kind of thing anyway. That's all we're
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  Speaker 2: going to say about it. I'm sure they we're going
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  Speaker 2: to deal with this later on.
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