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Erasmus says that the news section of the 10 September issue of the magazine covers a story about the role of food inspectors. She says that a recent notice that was issued by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development instructs food inspectors and those of designated assignees to follow up on food labelling that is misleading or incorrect in terms of the Agricultural Product Standards Act.

This issued notice overturns the previous instruction that had inspectors ignore such labelling. Erasmus adds that this notice came in 2020 after a meeting between the Directorate Food Safety and Quality Assurance of the department and the head of trademark divisions at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Erasmus explains that what this means is that food inspectors that were appointed by the agriculture department will now again be able to follow up on any queries that they received about misleading trademarks or labelling.   

Furthermore, this issue also takes a look at regenerative farming. According to Erasmus this type of farming is becoming a retail trend much in the same way as labelling that indicates that food is organic or genetically modified organism (GMO) free.

Experts now believe that consumers will in the future specifically look for food that indicates that it has been produced using regenerative farming practices.

Another article takes a look at the recent online dried tree fruit and canning producers’ information day where producers of these products heard how Covid-19 had sparked a surge in the sale of canned fruit. Erasmus says that the canned fruit industry is hoping that this trend will continue and that they will see a steady increase again in the demand for canned produce.

Lastly, readers can look forward to reading about a new market access initiative for small scale beef farmers in the Eastern Cape, as well as read a follow-up about the drought in the Karoo as well as a report on the first mohair sale for the season.

OFM News