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New Zealand is being used as the back door into Australia, and chemicals that are banned in other countries are being allowed in.

A dangerous trick is being played in the battle to take over local vegetable growers, with Chinese frozen vegetables sneaking into Australia through New Zealand.

Toxic imported frozen vegetables from China are slipping past our chemical regulation gatehouse and landing on the dinner tables of thousands of Australian homes.

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Looking after the interests of local vegetable farmers, William Churchill from Ausveg explains that “New Zealand has very lax country of origin labelling laws, allowing for this practice to take place. It’s something that the Australian industry is very worried about.”

“There's a litany of evidence to show their growing practices are questionable,” Churchill said. “They’re (using) old chemistry, they’re not good on the food, however they’re still being used widely in China.

According to Churchill “this is deceitful in its action because there’s no clear way for an Australian to be able to tell on the back of the packet where the products are coming from.


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“It means New Zealand can bring a product of China, repackage it in New Zealand, and put it back into Australia with no residue testing.”

Sixth generation Tasmanian farmer Mike Badcock is the director of Sustainable Agricultural Communities Australia. He's appalled that frozen vegetables imported via New Zealand are never tested by our authorities because of a trans-Tasman agreement.

“This is quite a serious risk to the Australian public. They don’t know they're not eating New Zealand food,” Badcock said.

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“So it can come in willy-nilly, labelled as produce from New Zealand, and with no testing - we really don’t know what we’re eating.”

Using an Australian accredited lab eighteen bags of frozen vegetables from McCains, Heinz and Birdseye, plus Coles and Woolworths home brands were chemically tested. Most were imported from China or New Zealand, and a few were Australian home-grown.

The vegetables were tested for more than 230 different chemicals, and of the eighteen products tested, three came up positive for four nasty chemicals.

Jo Immig is the coordinator of the National Toxics Network. She explains that the chemicals found range from moderately to extremely toxic.

“The four chemicals found in the vegetables are all pesticides that have been banned in the European Union and they’re all pesticides that are currently under review by our Federal regulator,” Immig said.

“What's emerging is their relationship potentially with cancers, and their impacts on reproduction and development birth defects.”

The worst chemical found was procymidone in the McCains Winter Vegetables - a product made in New Zealand from local and imported products.

“It’s been shown to cause birth defects,” said Immig. “The regulator recently updated label instructions to make sure that pregnant women, or women of child-bearing age, don’t come into contact with the chemical. They’re worried about the fact that it can actually stay in the food.”

In Australia it’s not usually used on any of the vegetables found in the McCains mix.

is that Australian produce is of a high quality.


I only put what was on puter... but some of the things i have seen in 15+ years in the food industry would prolly change some things that you put in your mouth. It's all to do with dollars and the big o/seas companies are killing us and they don;t give a toss jmo.

I deff would if i was'nt so lazy and kill everything i plant

going by some of your posts, you seem to be good at making moonshine