Browning Steffan: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1771. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.STEFFAN BROWNING (Green)to the Minister for Food Safety: Will she assure consumers that irradiated food labelling requirements will be enforced immediately in light of reports that irradiated fruit is being sold in New Zealand without the appropriate label?Hon JO GOODHEW (Minister for Food Safety):I can assure New Zealanders that requirements for irradiated food to be labelled are enforced. The Ministry for Primary Industries takes any reports of unlabelled fruit and vegetables seriously acts on any complaints received investigates and where necessary will undertake enforcement action.Steffan Browning: Considering that some irradiated fruit labelling printed in 4-point font is so small that many customers cannot read or see it will she assure New Zealanders that she will enforce more visible labelling for irradiated products immediately?Hon JO GOODHEW: I can assure the member that today I have raised the size of the font of the labelling with officials because I heard through the media yesterday that it was a problem. I would urge members of the public who have a belief that they cannot read the labelling that must be there to make a complaint about that and I can assure you that the Ministry for Primary Industries will enforce the necessity to have the fruit and vegetables labelled.Steffan Browning: On the basis that there is in fact no labelling in some cases can she guarantee that labelling requirements will be improved and enforced before she approves the importation of 12 more types of irradiated fruit and vegetables?Hon JO GOODHEW: There are a number of issues that I will try to deal with one by one in that question because they are important. First of all to clarify for the member and the House since the beginning of 2013 there have been 10 complaints of incorrect or missing labels. All were investigated and all were substantiated. Therefore action was taken on every single one of those. The Ministry for Primary Industries will take those complaints seriously and will work to protect New Zealand. In reference to the other products that the member has raised that are currently proposals these have not been gazetted yet. There is no import health standard for those new products but—and I take issue with the member on this—the labelling requirements are already significant and clear and the Ministry for Primary Industries will enforce those labelling requirements; they do not need to be changed.Steffan Browning: Given that New Zealanders really want to know what is in their food when will she monitor and enforce labelling for GE in food ingredients in products that are currently on our supermarket shelves?Hon JO GOODHEW: What I can assure the member is that any current regulatory or legislative requirements for labelling will continue to be enforced by the Ministry for Primary Industries but I would urge the member upon hearing of any alleged breach to make sure that the Ministry for Primary Industries knows about it as a priority perhaps even at the same time as he takes it to the media.