The Australian government has always been slow at keeping up with the rest of the developed world in food production laws and what is acceptable in food production.
Some of the foods could be harmful to people especially if incorrectly labeled or having harmful substances that some people are highly allergic to, and are not listed on the label. This may have serious health consequences, such as seafood products in a particular product that should not have it in the first place. Think of the pre made ingredients that come in a jar to make Chinese food. That is even used in restaurants to cook with also. You can’t always buy individual ingredients to cook with these days and in a restaurant they can’t always guarantee the food will not contain something that you may be allergic to. Add to that the country of origin and especially if the goods are made in unsatisfactory conditions.
Menthanol and ethanol in spirits is one of the things popping up in the news lately, with young people being poisoned with high amounts of ethanol in what they assume is a legitimate alcoholic beverage while on overseas holidays. That can cause very serious illnesses, blindness or the death of the young person, as we have seen recently in the Australian news with teenagers being made ill. Methanol is a different substance and highly toxic it should not be in alcohol.
It seems we don’t really know what we are consuming when buying our groceries and the government is clearly not doing its job by making sure everything manufacturers produce is what it claims to be, nor is the real country of origin always being revealed. Frozen vegetables in Australia for instance are sometimes labelled products of New Zealand and are not really from New Zealand, a legal loophole permits products from China to send their products to New Zealand and be packaged there and then sent to Australia, that has been happening for many years.
Methanol
Ethanol
