The draft changes to pregnancy labelling recommended by the Board of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand were yesterday approved at a meeting of relevant Ministers.

The FSANZ approval report recommended the variation of Standard 2.7.1 of the Code to permit the use of an alternative pregnancy warning mark with the following requirements:

• the signal words, statement, pictogram and border must be in the single colour black
• the background must be the same colour as the CC outside liner (i.e. brown, grey or white)
• minimum size of type for the signal words of 4.4 mm x minimum size of type for the statement of 3.4 mm
• minimum pictogram diameter of 14 mm.

The approval report noted that this approach prescribes colour, contrast and an increased label size compared with the existing size requirements for outer packaging, ensuring effectiveness of the pregnancy warning mark is maintained.

A communiqué issued by the meeting noted the Minister’s ongoing commitment to effective pregnancy warning labels.

“Ministers considered the variation approved by the FSANZ Board to the Code to permit pregnancy warning labels on corrugated cardboard packaging used for multiple individual units of alcoholic beverages to be in a single colour on a contrasting background,” the communiqué read.

“The request was due to a technical impediment to printing the prescribed warning mark on corrugated cardboard when a post-print process is used.

“At today’s meeting the FMM did not request a review of the draft variation to the Code.

“The variation provides a suitable alternative which amends the colour and increases the size of the warning statement.”

The changes to the pregnancy warning label came about following an application made by the Brewers Association of New Zealand after printing issues on corrugated cardboard used in outer packaging often rendered the warning illegible.