Detailed labelling helps food safety, says Fortescue’s Forrest

The Fortescue Metals chairman said consumers need to be able to identify where the food they buy has come from.

Andrew Forrest. We have to identify (the food) from the farm to the plate.’ Photo: Marie Nirme

Fortescue Metals chairman ­Andrew Forrest has called for improved labelling of world food products, particularly those sold to China, to encourage more production of safe food.

Speaking at a panel on agriculture at the Boao Forum for Asia on China’s Hainan Island yesterday, Mr Forrest said Chinese leaders were deeply concerned at the quality of the products that were going into their drugs and food.

“The quality of food in China is a big issue,” he said, adding that there needed to be changes that reward countries, such as Australia, which “made growing safe food their priority”.

This included better identification of the origin of food through bar codes, labelling and internet tracking so consumers could know where their food has come from and how it has been processed.

“Consumers, either in the supermarket or on the internet, need to be able to identify where the food they buy has come from — the identity and source of the food and what it actually is. Is it cooked or processed?” Mr Forrest said.

“We have to identify (the food) from the farm to the plate. With bar coding and internet tracking, all of this is possible.”

He said better labelling and tracking of food and its origins would then allow the “marketplace” to rectify the situation as consumers opted for safer food.

Mr Forrest did not see any world shortage of food on the horizon. “We will not run out of food,” he said. “Enormous changes can be made to the productivity of land.”

The real issue was boosting the supply of quality food on world markets, particularly for Asian consumers.

Mr Forrest is calling for the Australian food and agricultural sector to work together more closely to promote their products using a Brand Australia strategy.

“The problem we have is our ridiculous competitiveness,” he told The Australian.

“You have trade organisations, companies and states all competing against each other. We don’t reduce our competitiveness, we smash it. Until Australia comes ­together under one brand and one logo, we will never reach our potential.”

Glenda Korporaal travelled to China as a guest of Fortescue Metals Group