Australia eats unsafe food whilst we export the good stuff - 18 June 2009

“Canadian microbiologist and food safety expert, Dr Shiv Chopra, says that the food the Australian local market consumes is different to the food Australia exports because overseas countries have tougher regulations than we have here, ” says Ian Cohen, Greens MLC.

“ Basically the food we export to the European Union has to conform to much higher standards than our own, so we produce two lots of food – food that’s too good for Australians and food that’s not good enough for Europe.”

“Dr Chopra is visiting Australia and alerts us that this country allows products of questionable safety in our food production. Hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and genetically modified organisms in food production pose serious health risks.

”Dr Chopra has 30 years’ experience with Health Canada and is an authority on the safety issues of genetically manipulated (GM) foods, pesticides and herbicides, hormones and antibiotics in animal production systems, and slaughterhouse animal wastes. “

”In this parliament I have continually worked to raise awareness of the threats to our food supply. I hosted a Sydney Food Fairness Alliance Forum last month and I recently introduced a bill that will allow non-GM farmers to sue genetically modified organism patent owners for damage and loss sustained as a result of crop contamination.”

“It’s crazy that the organics industry is subject to a raft of regulations whilst, in this state under the GM Act, there are no regulatory prescriptions for how segregation of GM and Non-GM crops is to be managed. The Government has effectively handed control over to industry to self regulate.”

“Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) does not have adequate food labelling laws in place requiring food products derived from GM Canola, let alone other additives. The Aldi food stores voluntarily withdrew products that contained food colourings linked to attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. Whilst the US and some European countries have banned the colourings Food Standards Australia and New Zealand decided it was not necessary and the colourings are still permitted in Australian food.”

“Dr Chopra’s visit reminds us that we cannot rely on Government and its agencies to keep our food supply safe - in fact we have to monitor them to ensure that they are not actively making it unsafe.”