Investigation Report

Investigation Report: Labelling of food items

1.) Introduction
A compliance investigation took place about unlabelled honey sold at a fruit store in the Gold Coast
Hinterland. As stated on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) website, good labelling
will empower consumers to make the right and safe food choices. They therefor protect the
communities wellbeing and safety in such a way that they display information about use by and best
before dates, certain allergens, storage instructions and preparation of the food item, the codes are
advisory and issue warnings if applicable.
Details about labelling are set out in the Food Standard Code. Gold Coast Public Health Unit is
providing any food business with a 14 page Label Buster brochure which contains the most
important and common labelling practices.
2.) Aim
Inadequate or wrong labelling can cause a severe health risk to the public, for example allergens.
This can cause a major health risk for affected people. Even when there is the possibility that a
product can contain small traces of a certain allergen, this traces can have dramatic affects on
sensitive people. Therefor labelling must ensure that every product needs to be signed with most
care to reduce the risk to a minimum, or at best eliminate it.
Another important factor is to protect consumer from fraud. In our investigation with honey, the
consumer can not make an educated decision about the origin of the honey. It could be bulk bought
honey from another country and might contain addictives like preservatives or cheaper ingredients
to increase the amount of the product and therefor increase the profit of the manufacturer.
Consumers pay more money to get a local produced and pure hone , but with no labelling they do
not have a guarantee for the origin and quality of the product and can not challenge it at court.
3.) Background
A member of the community issued a concern towards the Gold Coast Public Health Unit about
unlabelled honey sold in a fruit store in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It was an anonymous call,
therefor no information about the complainer were obtained. But information about the product,
the time when it was observed and the location of the business were obtained.
4.) Procedure
4.1) Preparation Stage administrative
All obtained information will be transferred into the Maple system from QLD Health
by the EHO who was on telephone duty
Maple assigns a unique investigation number (INV) to each case
INV is send to the team leader of the complains unit
Team leader assigns an investigation EHO to the case

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4.2) Preparation Stage by assigned EHO

Searching computer data bases and documents if there is a history of the business (=
background search)
Contacting the complainer to inform that a case is established and who is the EHO in
charge and that he will be informed once the case is finalised. Providing contact
details of EHO if there are further questions about the case (not possible in case,
because the complaint was anonymous. QLD Health has to follow all complaints)
Booking a car for site investigation three days later (labelling is coded as medium, 5
working days, to high, 2 working days, risk priority and honey is a low risk food)
Reading relevant section in Food Standard Code to refresh knowledge
Print out Label Buster document for the business owner and making sure to have
all needed equipment like note taking book, pen, camera and identity card and be
sure of their powers of entry
4.3 Investigation
Arrive at side and seek the evidence and have a look around the venue if there are issues
as well
Identify yourself to shop assistant, describe why you are at their venue, tell them what
you have found and inform them about their rights
Make pictures for evidence
Ask shop assistant about the product and try to gather as much information as possible,
especially in regards to the manufacturer
Ask shop assistant about contact details from the shop owner
Order to remove the items
4.4 Post assessment
Call the owner of the business and give him all the information like at the start of
investigation and gather more information from him. Give information that an
Improvement Notice will be send out to him and that a follow up inspection will take
place around four weeks from now
Education of the shop owner that adequate labelling is his responsibility
Advice to the shop owner to bring honey back to the manufacturer to get it proper
labelled
Writing of a Memo
Achieve all information into MAPLE system
Write an Improvement Notice to owner
Make note in timetable for follow up inspection
5.) Discussion
This case Illustrates that even a small case like this can have a big impact on an individuals health. If
wrong or misleading labelling is not discovered early, it can affect a broad number of people and
possess a major risk to the community. The loss of work hours of affected people and their recovery
costs over the MediCare system exceeds the costs for any inspection and administrative procedure.

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Proper labelling also protects Australian manufacturer and their contribution to the economy and
employment market. This will have a huge impact on the Australian economy and can encourage
manufacturers to produce in Australia. Because many Australians trust and support the label Made
in Australia and good food labelling will support customer choices and national and local producers.
Good labelling also encourages a responsible and controlled use of substances that can possess a
hazard to the environment. All ingredients are listed on the label, therefor a control what is in the
food and therefor what the manufacturer needed is known and a management of potential
hazardous substances is possible.
The most important point is to give important information to the consumer. Allergens play a major
role, but also nutrition information is very important. This has a broad importance ranging from a
healthy nutritious diet to specific dietary needs like low fat, carbohydrates or low level of salt.
6.) Conclusion
Community and individual health, economic interests and environmental protection all justifies good
labelling practices and the costs involved in controlling and enforcing them in Australia. The practice
of QLD Health in providing small manufacturers and retail owner with a Label Buster brochure is a
good way to reduce a big code into an easy to use and to understand piece of paper for small retail
owners. A recommendation for a future program would be to educate the public about their rights
to bring any concerns of labelling to their local Public Health Unit to establish a watchdog function
of the broad public like in other areas eg. environmental protection in the developing industry.
7.) Learning outcome
This activity covered most of my learning goals which I developed prior to the placement. I gained
firsthand experience about the knowledge, skills and role of an EHO employed by QLD Health. Which
covered the objectives of shadowing a senior EHO and a deeper understanding of occupational
relevant legislations and how they are integrated (Goals 1&2)
During the process I discussed the matter of the case, possible legal frameworks and how to proceed
with the investigation with the assigned EHO. Once at the place I could observe how the EHO is
communicating with the shop assistant and later at the office his communication skills on the phone.
This gave me a very good picture on how to communicate within the profession and towards the
public (Goal 3).
I also gained in insight of how to obtain and analyse information, starting to develop the ability of
critical judgement for a situation and working in a team to find a solution to a specific problem (Goal
4).