The roadmap provides greater transparency, predictability, and strategic direction for the industry and regulators with a strategic focus on four core outcomes:

• Safe And Suitable Food – Formulated Supplementary Sports Foods
• Healthy Food Supply – Young Child Formula, Infant and Childhood Foods, Nutrient Reference Values
• Informed And Empowered Consumers – Health Star Ratings, E-commerce, Digital Labelling
• Thriving Food Economies – Nutritive Substances and Novel Foods, International Alignment Review

The roadmap projects will be staggered until the end of 2030, with work already starting on health star rating, child formula and digital labelling.

The roadmap has been developed through stakeholder engagement and collaboration with food regulation system partners. This approach reflects the shared responsibility for maintaining a trusted food regulation system. FSANZ will continue to engage transparently and collaboratively through the progression of projects.    

Within the proposal, FSANZ has addressed the current challenges being faced within the industry, where proposals will be addressed to assist the industry in addressing complex issues, including global food supply, disease in public health, growing technology innovations, shifting consumer expectations and environmental changes.

What does success look like in 2030, as proposed by FSANZ? To lower the rate of foodborne illness, support a healthier diet for the young population, empower consumers to access trusted and accessible information, and sustain a fast and innovative export industry. FSANZ will continue to monitor these metrics of systems working efficiently to ensure the delivery has a positive impact on the whole population.

With a pipeline of changes ahead, early preparation is key. We support businesses with practical, end-to-end food regulatory advice, from label reviews and HSR implementation through to reformulation and compliance strategies, helping you stay ahead of regulatory change and reduce risk.

P1056 is focused on strengthening caffeine labelling requirements. This includes clearer declarations of caffeine content and updates to advisory statements, particularly for vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant or breastfeeding individuals, and those sensitive to caffeine. The proposal recognises that caffeine is no longer limited to coffee and energy drinks, but is now present in an expanding category of products in a growing retail range.

For the industry, the proposal includes key changes, including when caffeine can be added to foods and limiting high concentrations of guarana extract. New labelling will apply to packaged beverages with high caffeine levels, including caffeine content per serve and advisory statements. Caffeine will be permitted in formulated supplementary sports foods within defined limits, and will prohibit the retail sale of caffeine as a food. Changes remain unchanged for cola products and energy drinks that presently require advisory statements.

The implications across product formulation, packaging, and compliance processes are in response to the increasingly high concentration and excessive caffeine intake in the population, to define safety boundaries and consumer choice. From the 1^st of April, food ministers now have 60 days to consider the decision before the proposal is gazetted into the code. Food businesses will have 2 years from the date of gazettal to implement the changes.

Brands should start reviewing their products to identify products containing added caffeine and assess whether current labelling aligns with potential future requirements. Early engagement will be key to minimising reformulation or relabelling risks down the line.

Intensifying fuel costs, manufacturing pressure and disrupted transport are being passed through the supply chain, with delivery costs jumping significantly. Particularly as fuel-driven costs underpin nearly every stage of the food system, the uncertainty of the direction the political climate is taking is being seen across the industry. This uncertainty is driving behavioural shifts, including early signs of panic buying and stockpiling, further destabilising supply with demand.

Rising freight costs have driven up packaging expenses, specifically for plastic jars, films, bottles, and tubes, for buyers in the food, beverage and personal goods sectors. Plastic packaging relies heavily on oil-derived inputs, and disruptions to Middle Eastern supply chains are constraining access to key petrochemicals. This is pushing up the cost of packaging materials globally, with Australian manufacturers already warning of reduced availability and rising input costs. This can lead to increased product pricing and a decrease in the availability of certain materials.

The current global crisis is trickling down to conversations for packaging producers who fail to recycle. Australia is again considering a levy on plastic packaging, designed to incentivise recyclability and reduce reliance on virgin materials. However, the timing is notable, as introducing additional cost signals into a system already under pressure from fuel and material shortages raises the key questions of whether businesses are equipped to transition packaging formats under current supply constraints.

Right now, businesses need support, security and trust in an industry under pressure. MSAC is here to assist you in navigating change and keeping you informed with the most up-to-date requirements and updates your business needs.

The partnership is focused on fixing the current fragmentation between the national soft plastics collection and APCO’s recycling scheme infrastructure. SPSA will continue to lead the expansion of collection and recycling pathways, while APCO will embed the scheme into its established systems, including reporting, guidance and labelling frameworks, such as the Australasian Recycling Label Program. 

The collaboration is determined for a circular environment, focusing on reducing duplication, improving data integrity, and creating a more seamless participation model for the industry. For brand owners and retailers, that means clearer pathways to engage, more consistent reporting requirements, and stronger alignment between packaging design, labelling and end-of-life outcomes. 

Importantly, this alignment comes at a critical time. Following the collapse of REDcycle and ongoing scrutiny of soft plastics recycling, the industry has been under pressure to rebuild trust and demonstrate credible, workable solutions. The SPSA scheme, backed by the ACCC, aims to shift responsibility upstream and scale national capability. 

A more integrated stewardship ecosystem is emerging, with one that links packaging design decisions directly with collection infrastructure and recycling outcomes, signalling a future where packaging claims, recyclability statements and design choices will be in a capable system.

A greater expectation on businesses to align packaging, labelling and compliance with a system that is finally starting to take shape. If you’re navigating what this means for your packaging claims, recyclability labelling or upcoming artwork updates, now is the time to get ahead. We help businesses translate evolving stewardship frameworks into compliant, commercially workable labelling solutions.

This case highlights an important consideration for food manufacturers and retailers: it’s not just the ingredients present in a product, but the role they play in the formulation that determines whether a claim can be made and substantiated. Many food additives can serve multiple functions depending on how they are used in a formulation. When claims such as “No Preservatives” or “No Added Preservatives” or “Preservative Free” are made, businesses must ensure that none of the ingredients perform a preservative function within the final product.

With consumers increasingly seeking clean-label products—commonly understood as products made with simpler, fewer and easily recognisable ingredients, with minimal additives and greater transparency—front-of-pack claims such as “No Preservatives” play a significant role in purchasing decisions. As a result, inaccurate or unsupported claims can expose businesses to regulatory scrutiny, legal action and reputational damage.

To mitigate these risks, businesses should conduct thorough formulation assessments, ingredient function reviews – accurately declaring any additives as required under Food Standard Code – and carry out documentation checks supported by credible PIFs and technical substantiation.

Our team at MSAC Solutions can assist with documentation reviews, ingredient functionality assessments and claims verification to help ensure product claims are properly substantiated and compliant.

As the plant-based category continues to grow, the Australian dairy industry is calling for stronger adherence to the Food Standards Code and, potentially, further amendments to tighten naming and labelling provisions. The industry argues that clearer definitions would support agricultural integrity and ensure transparency for consumers.

While proponents of plant-based beverages maintain that consumers understand the difference between dairy and non-dairy alternatives, others believe confusion persists, particularly in relation to nutrition and product origin. This has prompted ongoing discussion about whether restrictions should extend beyond “milk” to other dairy-derived terms such as cream, butter, cheese and yoghurt.

Consideration is also being given to the use of animal imagery, traditional dairy terminology and associated claims on plant-based packaging. Ultimately, the discussion should reflect a broader push for a level playing field across both plant-based and animal agricultural sectors, with consumer clarity and informed choice remaining central to the outcome. With debate intensifying month by month, regulatory and legal frameworks may soon evolve.

As regulations on alternative animal labelling spark movement, a proactive label review is becoming essential rather than optional. Businesses operating in both dairy and plant-based categories should ensure their product names, claims, imagery and composition align with current requirements and are future-proofed against potential code amendments. 

Our food regulatory labelling services provide comprehensive compliance reviews, risk assessments and strategic guidance to help brands navigate evolving standards with confidence, protect market access and maintain consumer trust.

The scheme, which has operated in Australia for more than two decades, certifies farms and supply chains that meet the organisation’s animal welfare standards for species including poultry, pork and farmed salmon. These standards are intended to go beyond minimum legal requirements and cover areas such as housing conditions, stock density, environmental situations and handling practices.

Under the rebrand, the term “Certified” replaces “Approved” to better communicate that participating farms and supply chains are subject to ongoing auditing and verification. The updated RSPCA logo also introduces a unified visual identity across all animal protein categories, designed to improve recognition on packaging and food settings.

From a labelling perspective, the transition will occur progressively. During the rollout period, both the existing RSPCA Approved and the new RSPCA Certified marks may appear on product packaging and menus. Businesses participating in the scheme will gradually update artwork and marketing materials until eventually phased out. The updated branding emphasises the verification aspect of the scheme and aims to provide consumers with clearer signals at point-of-purchase in the food labelling landscape.

For food businesses using the certification, the rebrand primarily affects on-pack claims and logo usage. Companies will need to ensure that updated artwork aligns with the new branding guidelines and that any references to the scheme accurately reflect the new terminology. As with the previous mark, use of the logo remains restricted to licensed participants whose products can be traced through certified supply chains.

As the new RSPCA Certified identity rolls out, our MSAC regulatory services can review labelling, sustainability and animal welfare requirements, and brand guidelines to ensure a smooth transition while maintaining compliance with certification requirements.

At the start of your APCO Annual Report, you will need to provide your Baseline Metric, the number of stock keeping units (SKUs), or the total tonnes of packaging that your organisation have placed on the Australian market during your 12-month reporting period.

The reporting requires 7 criterions to complete: Governance and Strategy, Design and Procurement, Recycled Content, Recoverability, Disposal Labelling, On-site Waste and Problematic Materials, with additional information your organisation wishes to include in your APCO Annual Report.

The 44 questions completed for your packaging metrics create an overall performance metric for your business:

1 Getting Started: You are at the start of your packaging sustainability journey.

2 Good Progress: You have made some first steps on your packaging sustainability journey.

3 Advanced: You have taken tangible action on your packaging sustainability journey.

4 Leading: You have made significant progress on your packaging sustainability journey.

5 Beyond Best Practice: You have received the highest performance level and have made significant progress on your packaging sustainability journey

MSAC are here for your needs to regularly complete your APCO reporting to assist in tracking and reporting your data. To avoid relying on the compilation of data and manual reporting, at MSAC, we have created Addis®, an all-in-one solution to solve all your packaging challenges, to capture all your data in one safe place. 

Addis® automatically manages your claims and certificates, enables automatic volumetric calculation with all associated dashboards and reports, enables easy APCO reporting and tracks your progress towards your sustainability targets. 

Let us handle all of it with our team of specialised packaging technologists. Contact regulatory@msacsolutions.com to enquire further.

Introduced as a voluntary front-of-pack labelling scheme, the Health Star Rating system was designed to support healthier consumer purchasing decisions by providing a simple, interpretive nutrition guide. However, the scheme has fallen short of its original uptake target. While the goal was for 70% of eligible packaged foods to display a Health Star Rating by November 2025, current adoption sits at approximately 37%, raising concerns about its effectiveness as a public health tool under a voluntary model. 

The Health Star Rating algorithm assesses key nutrients of concern, including sugar, sodium, and saturated fat, to generate an overall score. As Australia’s food landscape evolves, particularly with the growth of ultra-processed foods, there are increasing calls to change the system to better account for levels of processing, including additives.  

In the key outcomes announced from the Food Ministers meeting from the 13th of February, recognised that this low uptake has reduced the system’s effectiveness and undermined consumer trust. In response, the majority of ministers requested FSANZ to prepare a formal proposal to mandate the HSR in the Food Standards Code.  FSANZ will run two rounds of public consultation before reporting back with a final proposal. Ministers also agreed to publish reports on HSR uptake and consumer research to boost transparency and confidence.  

In support of the initiative, all packaged food products to display a Health Star Rating would enhance transparency and empower consumers. With limited time to interpret nutrition information during routine shopping, many Australians benefit from clear guidance rather than complex nutrition panels and ingredient lists. 

For many brands, this will involve calculating ratings and may involve in the future recalculating pending algorithm discussion, updating packaging, managing regulatory compliance, and coordinating artwork rollouts across multiple SKUs. We work closely with suppliers to navigate Health Star Rating requirements, from calculating accurate ratings and assessing reformulation opportunities through to managing label updates and implementation across product ranges.

If your business would like support in adding or updating Health Star Ratings for your products, we are available to assist through every stage of the process. 

The government intends to strengthen existing voluntary food labelling arrangements with a reform into the development of an Industry Code of Practice for plant-based food labelling. The code is designed to go beyond current guidance by providing clearer expectations for how plant-based and alternative protein products should be labelled to support consumer choice and transparency. 

The reform aims to ensure that consumers should be able to clearly identify their protein source, emphasising the importance of clear and informative food labelling. The key objectives to include in the reform include discouraging animal imagery on packaging that may confuse consumers, limiting the use of meat-specific terminology without clear qualifiers, and improving the prominence of plant-based protein labelling terminology (“legume protein”). 

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has undertaken consumer and market research examining how Australian shoppers interpret plant-based labelling. The research did find that most consumers can accurately identify plant-based products and understand their composition, and are confident about how these products are intended to be used.  

Despite the results, the meat and livestock sectors want a compulsory regulatory framework. The industry voices that voluntary codes lack enforcement power, and stronger, mandated rules are needed to prevent misleading practices and protect consumers and primary producers.  

For businesses developing or marketing plant-based foods, navigating labelling requirements can be complex, particularly around ingredient declarations and product naming.

Our team offers specialist support in helping ensure labels align with regulations while remaining clear, accurate and consumer-friendly. From label reviews to claims and terminology assessments, we partner with you to reduce regulatory risk and support confident market entry.