5. Claim Requirements

5 Mins to read

Share
Dark
Light

5. Claim Requirements

5 Mins to read

Share
Dark
Light

Article summary

Did you find this summary helpful?

Thank you for your feedback

Whisky
Australia

This section provides information on the definition of different types of claims and any restrictions or allowance of claims as well as claim registration processes.

5.1 Overview of Claims

5.1.1 Types & Definitions

General Food

Product claims covered by the Food Standards Code are usually in relation to nutrition content (e.g., ‘a good source of calcium’, ‘low in fats’, ‘gluten-free’) or health claims (e.g., for a product with Zinc: ‘Contributes to normal cognitive function’). Claims for a therapeutic effect are not permitted in any food.

Figure 1: Therapeutic claims are not permitted clause 1.2.7-1 from ref [1].

Since the FSC does not currently permit any claims (Nutrition content or health claims) for alcoholic beverages apart from those relating to energy content, carbohydrate content, or gluten content (see Figure 2 below), this report will not contain any further information relating to definitions of claims or general information for food claims.

Figure 2: Permitted claims for alcoholic beverages clause 1.2.7-4 (c) from ref [1].

5.1.2 List of Prohibited Claims

General Food

No further information is provided, as per the above.

Category

Alcoholic beverages

Only claims (as described in Figure 2 of Section 5.1.1 above) are currently permitted. All other claims are prohibited.

Product

Whisky

Same as "Category" (alcoholic beverages) above.

5.2 Nutritional Claims

5.2.1 Permitted Claims

General Food

No further information is provided, as per the above.

Category

Alcoholic beverages

Only nutrition content claims relating to energy, carbohydrates, and gluten are currently permitted (refer to Figure 2 of Section 5.1.1 above). It should be noted that label statements in relation to energy and carbohydrates/sugars are currently undergoing review as described in Section 4.7. Other claims relating to ‘organic’, ‘natural’, etc., are described in Section 5.4 below.

Product

Whisky

Same as "Category" (alcoholic beverages) above.

5.2.2 Nutritional Claim Registration

General Food

(a) For nutritional claims that are already permitted for use:

Nutritional claims that are currently permitted for General food are listed in Schedule 4 [2] in the table to clause S4-3 and do not require registration prior to use. This includes any claim wording and restrictions for use.

(b) For nutritional claims that are not currently permitted for use:

Applications can be made for new nutrition content claims. Further information is not provided on this process since the overriding restriction on such claims in relation to alcoholic beverages (see Figure 2 above) means that a different avenue would need to be taken to access additional nutrient content claims for alcoholic beverages.

Category

Alcoholic beverages

(a) For nutritional claims that are already permitted for use:

Only those nutrition content claims relating to energy, carbohydrates, and gluten content can be used and these do not require registration prior to use.

(b) For nutritional claims that are not currently permitted for use:

Since FSANZ is currently reviewing the permissions for carbohydrates/sugars and energy labeling (refer to Section 4.7), it is unlikely that new nutrition content claims will be considered while these are under review. The approval of new claims would require a review of clause 1.2.7-4 (c) [1] of the FSC.

Product

Whisky

Same as "Category" (alcoholic beverages) above.

5.3 Health Claims

5.3.1 Permitted Claims

General Food

No further information is provided, as per the above.

Category

Alcoholic beverages

Health claims are not permitted for alcoholic beverages.

Product

Whisky

Same as "Category" (alcoholic beverages) above.

5.3.2 Health Claim Registration

General Food

Please contact our team for information.

Category

Alcoholic beverages

Not applicable since health claims are not permitted for alcoholic beverages.

Product

Whisky

Same as "Category" (alcoholic beverages) above.

5.4 Other Notes or Requirements for Claims

This section provides relevant information about some other types of permitted claims about foods (e.g., ‘organic,’ ‘GMO-free,’ ‘natural’, ‘vegan’). These are outside the remit of FSANZ and are regulated under the Fair-Trading legislation in Australia. This includes the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) contained in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 [3], and relevant state and territory Fair Trading Acts and Food Acts. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) [4] enforces the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

The requirements are that claims of this type need to be true, balanced, and not misleading. Companies should ensure that they hold evidence to back up any of these product claims.

Organic claims

Figure 3: Definition of ‘organic claim’ from ref [5].

The ACCC website [5] provides information on the requirements for the use of organic claims. Organic products are not legally required to obtain certification; however, companies must be able to prove any such claims. For domestically-based companies, there is a voluntary domestic standard for growers and manufacturers wishing to label products as ‘organic’ and ‘biodynamic’ for sale within Australia (AS 6000–2015) [6]. Alternatively, some companies opt to become certified by an organic certification body. There are various certification bodies, which apply different standards. DAFF provided further information about organic certification [7].

GMO-free claims

Please refer to Section 3.8 of this guidebook regarding exemptions for labeling GMOs in some cases. Claims such as 'GM free' and 'non-GMO' on food labels are voluntary. They are regulated under the Fair Trading legislation in Australia. All statements must be accurate, truthful, and not misleading.

Natural claims

The FSC does not include a definition for the term, 'natural'. A discontinued Industry User Guide, Representations About Food (August 2002) [8] contained the following statement concerning 'Natural' label claims:

Figure 4: Definition of ‘natural’ from ref [8].

Since FSANZ does not currently have a policy covering the use of 'Natural' claims, all representations made about foods need to meet the relevant fair trading laws in Australia. The use of the word, 'Natural' is prohibited if it is false, misleading, or deceptive. The label claim, 'Natural' is becoming more popular with industry due to a consumer preference for clean labeling. This remains a ‘hot’ topic for regulators and may be an area of future focus for the fair trading regulator.

Vegan claims

The FSC does not have any specific requirement in relation to claiming that a food is vegan. This would be required to be truthful, accurate, and not misleading under the general requirements of the FSC and ACCC Fair Trading requirements. Vegan claims are popular in the Australian market for some alcoholic beverages.