In February, legislation passed the Senate to implement further changes to the nation’s food labelling system to help improve the accuracy of country of origin claims about where products were made or packaged.

The reforms also help to identify the percentage of a food product made in Australia and were ignited by public and political reaction to the Hepatitis A outbreak on imported frozen berries that occurred in early 2015.

The changes also follow through on recommendations made from an inquiry into CoOL rules, chaired by South Australian rural Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey in the previous parliament.

Food products such as Beechworth Honey, Birdseye Country Harvest Garden Mix and Angas Park dried apples have already been displaying the new labelling arrangements on supermarket shelves, getting ahead of formal deadlines to implement the reforms.

The National Farmers’ Federation said the CoOL reforms would aid consumer confidence and knowledge and ultimately benefit Australian producers by helping to identify a food product’s country of origin and authenticity of contents.

Federal Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Arthur Sinodinis said the new advertising campaign would help consumers understand the new CoOL system for food products and was designed to make people aware of the new labelling laws and how they were being used on food products.

“Many people will have already noticed the new labels starting to appear on products in stores - now is a perfect time to let people know what they’re all about,” he said.

“Over the next five weeks, advertising showing what the new labels mean and where people can find more information will run on television and radio, in newspapers, online and in shopping centres,” Senator Sinodinis said.

To back up the advertising campaign, information sessions will be held throughout May in selected supermarkets throughout Australia, giving consumers take-home information explaining the new labels.