LEGAL EAGLE: Ciska De Rijk’s law firm Essence helps companies in the nutrition, food supplement and cosmetic industries navigate the law. Photo supplied
ENTREPRENUERS looking to break into the food and nutrition industry have a lot of red tape to deal with, especially if they are considering taking their product international.
Essence, a new legal compliance business in Whakatane, helps food and nutrition-based businesses achieve success with a better understanding of the laws governing the industry.
Ciska De Rijk, a lawyer specialising in all aspects of the nutrition marketing industry and owner of Essence, said there were many legal requirements that modern-day food businesses had to deal with.
One of the top issues was product additives, which were highly regulated.
“Say a person is developing a food product, maybe it’s a cereal or a drink, something like that. They need to understand what ingredients can go in the product,” she said.
Nutritional claims and labelling laws also played a significant role.
“They need to understand what must go on the label and what claims they can or can’t make. For example, if they want to say their product contains fibre, they need to have a certain amount of fibre per serving,” she said.
Quite often a business could begin small, selling their products at local markets, where incorrect labelling or nutritional claims could be overlooked.
“Walking around markets, I see a lot of people actually breaching the law because they don’t realise they can’t actually say that,” she said.
Ms De Rijk was able to help these businesses move to the next level by advising what changes they needed to make to break into bigger markets.
There were few attorneys that dealt with legislation in the food supplement, nutrition and cosmetics industries.
“There are only five lawyers who do this across Australia and New Zealand, which is very small,” she said.
Her interest in the field resulted from a scientific background.
“I have a science degree as well and I sort of fell into it when I first started [practising law],” she said.
With Australia as New Zealand’s largest trading partner, Ms De Rijk said there were similarities in legislation making it easier for domestic companies to break into the market.
“You basically have one code that governs labelling and what can go in the product, and it’s exactly the same.
“It’s a mutual code between the two countries,” she said.
Despite a growing trend for Australians to buy products made locally, New Zealand still had a respectable reputation.
“I would say Australian consumers look at New Zealand products and think it’s safe and pure and natural,” she said.
Her expertise also included helping businesses that operate in smaller markets.
“In terms of restaurants and cafes, there are laws changing under the Food Act 2014. A lot of cafes will be under what’s called a food-control plan.
“There are different requirements I can advise them on,” she said.
A company’s online presence could be their best public forum but there were also situations where the advertising platform could backfire for a business.
“Cyber bullying is a big [issue] now and social media posts – whether you’re liable for what someone else says on your Facebook page, which you can be, depending on what it is,” she said.