NZ Pork disgruntled with upcoming food regulation changes

New Zealand pork farmers say it's not fair some imported pork is being left out of an upcoming law change that will require the country of origin to be written on certain foods.

The regulations are being put in place so consumers can make informed decisions about where their food is coming from, but there are claims it's failing to meet the aim.

The law change will apply to individual types of fruit and vegetables - both fresh and frozen - but when it comes to meat, the only processed product to be regulated will be cured pork.

Under the proposed regulations, shoppers will be able to view where the pigs were raised for cured products like bacon and ham, but some marinated items haven't been included, meaning there's no requirement to say where that meat has come from.

While some companies choose to state the pork's origin, others say "made in New Zealand from imported and local ingredients".

Around 60 per cent of pork products eaten here are made from imported meat.

NZ Pork says the majority of imported pork comes from countries which allow farming practices that are illegal here.

“We shouldn't allow anything that doesn't meet our high standards to ride on our coat-tails to use a good name,” says Helen Andrews, director of NZ Pork.

Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin says food labels can be confusing for shoppers.

“I think that the food producers have swayed the Government into having this very limited country of origin labelling and I just think that it's unfortunate there are loopholes like this."

She says if the proposal doesn't change, shoppers could be misled.

The watchdog is advocating a broader scheme that covers most foods but the government says widening the pork definition would create further disparity between the requirements of meats.

Ms Chetwin disagrees.

“We just think this was a big mistake, you know this was an opportunity to get this right, we welcome any country of origin labelling but it could have been a lot better.”

The public has until tomorrow evening to have its say on the proposal.