Sorry about the rambling and almost incoherent parts of the above but I really get on my very high horse over Generic Brands. There are a couple of ways of cheating on them if you know how - i.e. John West use a particular method of embossing their cans with codes regardless of the lables so occasionally you can get john West Tuna as about a 1/4 of the JW price in Home Brands but your really really need to become a Lable detective to find it.

As an aside to the imported foods please be aware that food imported into New Zealand from China makes it to our shores marked as 'Product of New Zealand'.

I manage grow a few things organically but have to resort to sprays at times that I would rather not use but overcome my regrets with being able to actually eat something I grew.

That is just plain wrong and needs to be bought to the relevant authorities attention. FSANZ is a start.

It's one of the reasons I religiously read the labelling on food products. The only time I buy non-Australian is if I can't get the Aussie equivalent (eg. I've never seen champignons as a PoA).

...and don't be fooled into thinking that a company that buys some produce from Australia buys ALL from Australia. McCains is a classic example here. A lot of their vegies are products of Aus, but there are some that are not, they come from NZ and because of the lapse import laws in regards to China, I won't buy that product even if it IS cheaper.

...and if I can grow my own? All the better.

It is very wrong and should be stopped. Because of it I no longer buy food from NZ. I use to buy NZ if I couldn't get Australian but knowing it could come from China I just can't trust anything from there.

Anyone like a chip to go with their imported frozen fish? Chances are they are Chinese Chips having come through the back door of NZ.

You cant trust labels at the moment either.

I wouldn't trust any foods that come from china (except soy sauce) we brought some "homebrand" tinned fruit that came from South africa and the contents were pale and tasteless, if we buy tinned fruit now we buy SPC (which it seems Woolworths are trying to delete from there shelves to be replaced by more homebrand rubbish.
The other thing with some of the Homebrand products are if they are not loaded with salt they are loaded with sugar!! if something says "fat free or 99.9% fat free.." have a look at the back of the lable and you will see that it is loaded with sugar.
Some homebrand foods aren't that bad, (in terms of where they are made) we bought a homebrand mud cake from Iga a few months back and the lady who works there told us that the cakes were made buy Sarah Lee and i have to say it is one of the best Mud cakes that i have ever had.
I also really cant see how they expect China and places like that to "feed the world" as more and more foods are being, grow, produced or exported from China to the rest of the world and it is increasing every year and the only reason that is,is because of the cost of producing foods in China , but we all know about China's standards be it human waste, hygiene, pollution, polluted water ways..

I was so angry when I heard about that. WTF is our regulatory authorities doing? Can we PLEASE be allowed to make decisions about what we eat and where it is from?

I refuse to eat anything from China, I know how it's grown and refuse to touch it, but stuff like the above just makes it that much harder to avoid. With all the government regulation being imposed at every level, how is it that we can be so misled about the origins of food?

And the latest on this topic is the fungicide in Brazilian orange juice.

Of course we cant pick up the shortfall because we stopped growing oranges years ago
Why because of cheap imports combined with misleading food labeling

The SPC Ardmona website has a list of suppliers, and a factory outlet in Shepparton, Vic. They can also supply a huge variety of groceries for 'fundraising' if you have the transport arranged. Grass roots rebellion against generic brands is possible!

Regarding 'fertiliser' and food handling. Yes, I recall a serious gastro outbreak, and major food recall, from imported champignons (more than 20 years ago).

Like most companies now days SPC Ardmona is no longer "locally owned" it is now owned by Coca-Cola Amati

Most companies are now owned overseas unfortunately.

The made in Australia logo is so abused as well. Last time I tried to buy a bottle of jam I paid nearly $5 for a bottle because for me it had to be not only made here but using Australian grown food.

If I remember rightly the IXL brand was made of "local and imported ingredients". Since there is no listing of what is in it I presume that the Australian ingredient was probably the water.

When companies start being honest about their products then I may buy them. Until then I will stick with buying products that do list what and where it came from.

I have noticed on some packaging it states made from local and imported ingredients while others say made from imported and local ingredients....
It is a rort really how in the hell do you know what percentage is "local" produce and what percentage is imported? for all we know it could only be the preservatives that are local produce! and the worst part is you are buying blind because you have absolutely no idea where the imported produce has come from.

I figure that at least some aussies are employed making the stuff, and the quality is Ok. Anyone know of genuinely Australian canner/bottlers?

OK this is way off topic I suppose but it has a vague connection.

Ingredients: there is a term used within the processed food industry called speed balling. It is any combination of salt, sugar and fats that can increase flavour while masking nasty ingredients. i.e. you need to increase the shelf life of a product but the only way to do so and to keep it stable is to use salt in so high a concentration that no one could stomach it. What to do? Easy add in more fat and sugar to mask the taste. Fixed.

How can this cause any problems you may ask?

Well to start with you need look no further than our own aborigines or native populations from the Highlands of PNG.

They never, ever used salt in their (100% naturally found organic) foods before white settlement. Nor did they harvest it, use it to preserve foods or any other uses we use it for. Their bodies adapted to wring the most sodium out of whatever foods they consumed as everything has a sodium content.

Along comes us white mongrels and introduce salt, sugar and fats into their fragile diets and within the last 40 years you see life expectancies plummet, kidney disease is rampant, diabetes epedemic, billions are spent training and supplying kideny dialisys machines, flying aboriginal patients all over the country for treatment, hypertension caused by their bodies trying to excrete the over dose of sodium causes heart disease, vascular disease, blindness, limb amputations etc etc etc all because we put salt in foods that we sell them.

If anyone wanted to perfom silent genocide on a race this would have to be the easiest option in the world. Addict them to a processed food products because it is a western diet they are forced to adopt instead of a traditional hunet gathering one and don't do anything to reduce the amount of sodium chloride, complex carbohydrates and fats they consume on a daily basis and in next 3 to 4 generations they will all be dead or damn near extinct.

What is teh government doing about this? Nothing. Not a zot.
for more information about salt and how it effects you have a look at Salt Matters Not trying to make anyone a convert to a low sodium diet but if you want more information then PM me.

A few things I buy (apart from my local stuff) knowing they are Australian food is

Cascade Apple Juice, grown and bottled in Tas.

Bertochi ham, available in woolies. Aus ham and cryovaced. Nice ham too for commercial stuff.

Beerenberg Farm raspberry jam. Again, available in woolies.

Birds eye have frozen Australian peas and corn.

Golden Circle can no longer be trusted. Their beetroot processing is stopped and will now be product of NZ so who knows where.

I would have to look in my pantry to name more. Those are just off the top of my head.

Alarming from a biosecurity and national security viewpoint as well. By the time Australia wakes up, productive agricultural land will have been lost to the "terrible twins"... climate change/variation and redevelopment. If I had the money I'd be out there buying up prime agricultural land in anticipation of that day. Oh, darn, that's what those very sensible Chinese companies are doing right now!

Edgell chickpeas in cans are Aussie product, but mixed beans include imported product.

Population growth means that cities and towns are expanding over that precious arable land. Towns were originally built in prime growing land, where there was water, and now they're growing. Farmers on the outskirts of cities are finding that to sell their land for housing is so hugely more profitable than to keep farming it, especially being encroached by residential areas the occupants of which object to farming noises and smells.