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If your retail food product was grown, produced, made or packed in Australia, its country of origin label may need to show the minimum percentage of Australian content.

That’s easy if your food contains either:

  • all Australian ingredients (100%)
  • no Australian ingredients (0%).

But it can be trickier to calculate if your product includes both Australian and imported ingredients

Making the calculation

To calculate the percentage of Australian content in a food product:

  • use the ingoing weight of each ingredient. The ingoing weight means the amount that was added when making the product, not the weight after any cooking or processing
  • add up the ingoing weights of all Australian ingredients
  • add up the ingoing weights of all ingredients (both Australian and imported)
  • divide the total weight of Australian ingredients by the total weight of all ingredients
  • multiply this number by 100 and then round the answer down to the nearest whole number. This is the percentage of Australian ingredients you put on your label.

Example

You make tomato sauce for retail sale. Each product contains:

  • Australian content: 1 kg of tomatoes, 170 g of olive oil, 20 g of sugar, 10 g of basil and 150 g of water
  • imported content: 130 g of onion and 20 g of garlic cloves

The ingoing weight of the Australian ingredients is 1350 g. The total ingoing weight of all ingredients is 1500 g.

This means the percentage of Australian ingredients is 90% (1350 ÷ 1500 × 100).

Your product’s label would indicate that it contains ‘at least 90% Australian ingredients’.

Compound ingredients

Some food products contain compound ingredients. These are ingredients that are made up of sub-ingredients.

Examples of compound ingredients include:

  • pasta (made from flour, egg and water) in a ready meal
  • yoghurt balls (made from yoghurt, dried fruit and shredded coconut) in a trail mix
  • chocolate chips (made from cocoa, cocoa butter and sugar) in a biscuit.

Only the Australian portion of a compound ingredient is counted as Australian content. If a compound ingredient includes both Australian and imported sub-ingredients, you’ll need to break down the ingoing weight of the sub-ingredients.

Example

You make a spaghetti bolognaise ready meal using:

  • 80 g tomato sauce (90% Australian content)
  • 120 g beef and vegetables (100% Australian content)
  • 175 g pasta (36% Australian content).

The ingoing weight of Australian ingredients is 255 g:

  • 72 g in the sauce (90% of 80 g is 72 g)
  • 120 g for the meat and vegetables
  • 63 g for the pasta (36% of 175 g is 63 g).

The total ingoing weight of all ingredients is 375 g. So the total percentage of Australian content is 68% (255 ÷ 375 × 100).

Your product’s label would indicate that it contains ‘at least 68% Australian ingredients’.

Foods with varying Australian content

Sometimes the proportion of Australian content in a food product can change over time (for example, due to seasonal availability).

If that food was made or packed in Australia, your label can display the average percentage of Australian ingredients. Your label must also direct consumers to a phone number, website or app where they can get more information about the product.

You’ll need to calculate the average ingoing weight of Australian ingredients over a continuous period of 1, 2 or 3 years. The period must end no later than 2 years before the date you label a product.

Example

You make apple pies in Australia. Apples are 60% of the ingoing weight of all ingredients.

For 9 months of the past year, you made the pie using 100% Australian ingredients.

For the other 3 months of the year, you had to use imported apples. That meant the proportion of Australian ingredients dropped to 40% for 3 months.

The average percentage of Australian ingredients over the year is (9 ÷ 12 × 100%) + (3 ÷ 12 × 40%) = 85%.

Your product’s label would say something like ‘Made in Australia – ingredient sources vary – average 85% Australian ingredients – call 1800 160 401 for details’.

Processing aids

A processing aid is a substance that has a technological purpose during processing, but not in the final food.

You don’t include processing aids when calculating Australian content in a food.

Example

Rennet is used to separate milk into curds and whey for cheesemaking. It does not perform any function after this, so it is a processing aid.

You make cheese using:

  • Australian content: milk and salt (98%)
  • imported content: rennet (2%).

The processing aid (rennet) is not included when calculating Australian content. This means the percentage of Australian ingredients is 100%.

Water as an ingredient

Water is usually counted as an ingredient when calculating the percentage of Australian content in a food.

The only exception is where water is part of a ‘liquid packing medium’ that is generally not consumed. For example:

  • The liquid in a can of chickpeas (aquafaba) is not usually consumed. So the water in this liquid would be excluded from the calculation.
  • The fruit syrup in a can of peaches is usually consumed as part of the food. So the water in the syrup would be included in the calculation.

Country of origin for water

When water is included as an ingredient, its country of origin is usually wherever it was collected or harvested.

The exception is when water is used to reconstitute dehydrated or concentrated ingredients or other components (including food additives). In this case, the water has the same country of origin as that ingredient or component.

Example

A fruit juice drink is manufactured in Australia by combining a Brazilian fruit juice concentrate with water from Australia.

The amount of water needed to reconstitute the concentrate is counted as Brazilian water. Any additional water would be Australian

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