- Does your business make claims about the origin of your products?
- Is your business required to include country of origin claims and labels for food products?
- Are the words and images related to country of origin used on your label misleading or giving a false impression?
Your small business can choose to make origin claims, as long as they are honest and able to be proven. Country of origin claims can tell consumers where a product was grown, produced or made.
There are special rules around country of origin labelling on certain food products. Most foods that are offered for retail sale are required to have country of origin labelling.
If you manufacture or sell any other types of products that are not food, the law does not require you to make a country of origin claim. Your business can choose to make claims for your products for example, ‘local’, ‘home-made’ ‘made in Australia’ or ‘Grown in New Zealand’.
All claims must be clear, truthful and accurate under the law
If you choose to make a country of origin claim, you must make sure the claim is clear, truthful and accurate. Businesses risk breaking the law if they make false or misleading claims. If a reasonable consumer is likely to be led into error from certain words or images on a product’s labelling, then there’s a risk of breaching the law. It doesn’t matter whether your business intended to mislead or deceive consumers.
Examples of false or misleading country of origin claims
A textile business sews binding on the raw edges of imported pre-cut fabric to produce towels. The finished products are called ‘True blue towels’ and have an image of a kangaroo and the Southern Cross on the packaging. These words and images are likely to constitute a representation about the origin of the towels and raise concerns under the law. This is because they could reasonably lead an ordinary person to believe those words and images mean it was an Australian-made product.
A hardware store runs an Australia Day promotion where it attaches cards captioned ‘Do it for Australia, buy Aussie made’ to products that were not made in Australia. This would likely be misleading, as the signs reasonably lead consumers to believe those products were Australian-made.
Key claims for country of origin
The country of origin concepts of 'grown in', 'produced in', 'made in' and 'packed in' are defined in consumer law. If used correctly, they provide a ‘safe harbour’ for businesses making country of origin claims. A country or origin claim that meets these requirements will not be considered false or misleading.
Even if a business doesn’t meet one of these safe harbours, they can still make a country of origin claim if they are confident that the claim is not false, misleading or deceptive.
Grown in
A ‘grown in’ claim generally means that all the main components of the product were grown in that country and almost all processing occurred in that country.
Examples where this claim may apply includes food products, flowers or clothing items made from wool or natural fibres.
Produced in
A ‘produced in’ or ‘product of’ claim generally means that all the main components of the product originated in the country claimed and almost all processing occurred in that country.
Examples where this claim may apply includes processed and fresh food products, clothing and cosmetics.
Made in
A ‘made in’ claim generally means that a product was last substantially transformed in that country.
The product must have had a significant change to the ingredients or components, so that the final product is fundamentally different in identity, nature or essential character from the imported ingredients or components.
This claim is mostly used for manufactured products.
Packed in
A ‘packed in’ claim is mostly used for food. Food that cannot claim to have been grown, produced or made in a country will only be able to claim to have been ‘packed in’ that country.
This claim is mostly used when the ‘made in’ claim can’t be used.
Learn more about country of origin claims.
Country of origin food labelling requirements
Most food products must be origin labelled
Most food sold for retail sale in Australia must be labelled with its country of origin under the law. This includes most foods sold in stores, markets, online or in vending machines if they are packaged, or certain unpackaged foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and specific meats.
Food country of origin labelling rules are set out in the .
Learn more about country of origin food labelling.
Seafood labelling for hospitality venues
From 1 July 2026, restaurants, cafes or other hospitality businesses selling dishes with seafood, for immediate consumption, must clearly show where the seafood is from. Labelling must show whether the seafood is from Australia, imported, or mix of Australian and imported.
Learn more about on the Australian Government’s Business website.
Watch our video about country of origin claims
If you make a claim that your product originated from a particular country the Australian Consumer Law (or ACL) requires that the claim be one – truthful, two – clear, and three – accurate.
Of course, with all the different ingredients or components that can make up a product, as well as the possibility of processing in multiple countries, it’s not always that easy working out what type of claim to make about your product. So to help out, the ACL outlines four situations where you can safely make a country of origin claim without it raising concerns under the law.
These are when you can show that your product was – one – grown in a particular country, two – produced in a particular country, three – made, manufactured or originated in a particular country or four – carries a mark in the country of origin food labelling information standard.
Each category has its own conditions that must be met. If you’re able to show that your product fits in one of these categories, you will have an automatic defence against allegations that the claim is false, misleading, or deceptive. These are called the safe harbour defences, and they exist to provide you with peace of mind when you make a country of origin claim.
For more information about country of origin claims, visit the ÌÇÐÄÔ´´ website.
Watch our video on substantial transformation
Do you manufacture, sell or distribute goods for sale in Australia? Will you claim your products are made in a particular country? If so, you need to consider your obligations under the Australian consumer law.
By saying that you made something, you are making a claim about the manufacturing process which your customers may rely on. It is your responsibility to ensure the claim is truthful, clear and accurate.
Before you say your products are ‘made in’ a particular country, you should ask yourself whether they were ‘substantially transformed’ in that country.
But what does that mean, exactly?
Well, a good is substantially transformed if it was grown in or produced in that country, or processing in that country has created a product that is fundamentally different in identity, nature or essential character from its imported ingredients or components.
Take for example, a t-shirt. If you import fabric and cut and sew it into a t-shirt, then you have substantially transformed the fabric into a different product. But it’s not substantial transformation if you only add a logo to an imported t-shirt.
The same applies if you only paint a chair or put eyelets on a shoe.
Processes like this which only serve to finish off a product will not result in a fundamentally different product.
How about food?
If you use imported ingredient to make an apple pie you will have created something fundamentally different from the imported ingredients you started with.
But, processes that only change the form or appearance of an imported food, like grating cheese, crumbing fish, or adding water to an orange concentrate to make juice will not be a substantial transformation of those imported ingredients.
You should think twice about saying your product is made in a country unless processing in that country has clearly resulted in a fundamentally different product.
You can face penalties if you make a false or misleading claim about where you made your product.