Food & Beverage

Our core services include advising clients on:

• Finding the right path to market
• Marketing food products
• Running and growing a food business
• Crisis consultancy, and
• Training.

Find out more about what we do, below.

We have a dedicated email address – food@khq.com.au.  Or feel free to call us on (03) 9663 9877, and you will be directed to a member of our talented team.

We specialise in confidently bringing new products to the Australian and New Zealand market. Our services include:

• food recipe compliance reviews
• import conditions advice
• innovative ingredient classification – whether a novel food, a nutritive substance or a non-traditional food
• innovative product classification – a food, special purpose food, dietary supplement or complementary medicine
• can your food be fortified
• submissions to the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods (ACNF), and
• applications to amend the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code through FSANZ.

WATCH: Charles Fisher in conversation with Nick Connell and Veronica Volfneuk from Vow Food Group, discussing the regulatory path to market for their innovative cell-based meat products.

We will help you maximise the marketing opportunities that Australia and New Zealand regulations allow specifically for food products through:

• advice on health, nutrition and therapeutic claims
• labelling compliance (including expert advice on the FSANZ Code, country of origin, measurement, and more)
• marketing collateral review (all media, including communications and industry codes)
• promotions (national, international, end-to-end)
• sponsorship, licensing, and branding agreements
• competition and consumer law advice and training, and
• copyright, trade mark, and trade secret protection and enforcement. 

Running and growing a food business comes with unique challenges and regulations. We routinely advise clients on getting the most out of:

• food licensing, including primary production and/or liquor
• manufacturing and distribution agreements
• leasing (including retail leasing) and franchising
• tax structuring and compliance advice (including personal wealth)
• employment, outsourcing, and procurement advice
• property and plant & equipment sale, leasing, and hire (including PPSA advice)
• debt and equity funding and raisings, and
• mergers and acquisitions.

Ever been contacted by a food regulator? Been pressured to recall when you don’t think it is necessary? We have experience in defending clients and negotiating favourable outcomes with:

• state and federal health departments
• local government environmental health officers
• food regulators such as the New South Wales Food Authority
• primary production regulators like PrimeSafe, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, and Safe Food Production Queensland
• consumer protection watchdogs like the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the New Zealand Commerce Commission
• the Federal Department of Agriculture and the Imported Food Inspection Scheme
• the Australian Taxation Office, and
• the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

Often the most cost-effective way to manage any risk is to upskill people within your company to know how to manage those risks themselves. Our team has decades of training experience in the food space, and we would be pleased to share that knowledge with you.

KHQ is recognised as a leading firm in the competition & trade category of Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2023 & 2024).