Country of origin labelling (CoOL) will give consumers clear, consistent information about where their seafood comes from. This will help them decide what seafood to buy.
Australia’s federal, state and territory consumer ministers met to consider introducing mandatory country of origin labelling for seafood in hospitality. This followed extensive stakeholder consultation and a cost-benefit analysis.
Consumer ministers voted to introduce the AIM model. Under this model, hospitality businesses will need to show if seafood is either:
- Australian (A)
- imported (I)
- mixed origin (M), if a dish includes both Australian and imported seafood.
The Australian Government will implement the model using a new information standard under the Australian Consumer Law.
What you need to do
Businesses don’t need to do anything yet.
We will work with the hospitality industry to help it adopt the new seafood CoOL requirements.
We will provide guidance for impacted businesses. A transition period will give them time to adjust.
These changes will not affect retailers, like supermarkets. This is because different CoOL requirements already apply in retail settings.
We will announce more details about the changes in 2024.