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'Made in Australia' and other country of origin claims

Your label can include information about where the product comes from, such as 'made in Australia'. This information is called a country of origin claim.

Country of origin claims must be accurate and truthful. Under Australian Consumer Law, making false or misleading origin claims can lead to penalties, so it's important to get this right.

There are extra country of origin rules for food sold at shops, markets, online and other retail settings.

Food products

Most retail food products sold in Australia must have a country of origin label. 

The Food Standards Code sets out some other things you need to include on food labels. These include:

  • use by and best before dates
  • ingredients, food additives and allergens
  • nutrition information
  • health advice and claims
  • the supplier’s name and address.

Packaged goods

Labels for pre-packaged goods must comply with Australia’s trade measurement laws.

These laws include rules for the position, size and format of measurement information (like a product's weight or volume). You must also display the name and address of the packer if the goods were packed in Australia.

Safety standards and warnings

Some types of products must meet mandatory safety standards. Safety standards often including labelling requirements. This might mean you need to put a warning statement on your product or its packaging.

Products that use electricity, water or fuel

Some products must comply with environmental labelling standards before you can sell them in Australia. 

Each standard has a rating and labelling system. The ratings let consumers know how efficiently a product uses energy, fuel or water. You can use these ratings to help promote your products.

The main environmental labelling standards in Australia are:

Products that contain chemicals

Products that contain chemicals have different labelling rules depending on how they will be used:

  • Consumer chemical products must follow the labelling requirements of the Poisons Standard.
  • For industrial chemicals, refer to Safe Work Australia’s guidance on labelling hazardous chemicals.
  • Agricultural and veterinary chemical products must follow the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s labelling codes.

Cosmetics

If you make or sell cosmetic products, you must follow the mandatory standard for labelling cosmetics ingredients.

This includes listing the product’s ingredients so consumers can avoid irritants or things they are allergic too.

Therapeutic goods

Therapeutic goods include:

  • prescription and non-prescription medicines
  • medical devices
  • biologicals (something made from or containing human cells or tissues)
  • some other goods such as tampons and disinfectants.

A therapeutic good must be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) before you can sell it in Australia. It also needs to meet the TGA’s packaging and labelling requirements.

Imports and exports

Some types of goods must be labelled with a trade description before you can import them into Australia. A trade description says what the goods are and where they were made or produced. The Australian Border Force (ABF) may seize imports that are not labelled correctly. 

Products exported from Australia generally don’t have specific labelling requirements. If you include a trade description, make sure it isn’t false or misleading. You will also need to meet any labelling rules for the country you are exporting to.

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