An Australian fish oil processor and refiner is keen to assure its customers that its raw material is responsibly sourced in the wake of an influx of fish oils which falsely claim to be made in Australia.
Melbourne’s Ocean Oils specialises in extracting squalene fish oil from deepwater sharks, a product which is seeing growing demand because of the health benefits it provides.
Richard Saul, managing director, said: “For 25 years, the company, [has] built a strong export business based on high quality manufacturing and ethical sourcing of raw material, [but we] didn’t see this coming.”
Mr Saul said that these false fish oils have made his product almost impossible to sell and caused its price to drop.
Through his own investigations, Mr Saul found that the Made in Australia label, available from Australian Made Campaign Ltd in return for a fee, has begun to appear on many brands of fish oil.
He found that the logo had been granted to 63 brands of squalene oil and 11 brands of krill oil even though they did not use fish caught or grown in Australia.
Under new Federal Country of Origin Labeling Laws, businesses will have until 30 June 2018 to comply with new requirements which require that only food products grown, produced or made in Australia can carry a country of origin mark.
Products must also carry a bar chart showing the % of Australian content and a text statement about the % of Australian ingredients.
Made in Australia Ltd is being urged to withdraw the advantages of carrying its branding from foreign oils sooner rather than later.
