Professor Elizabeth Sarofim
Professor Elizabeth Sarofim is the Code Supervisor under the food and grocery code.
She is a senior competition and consumer lawyer having held senior positions in private practice, public policy, administrative tribunals and academia.
Professor Sarofim is highly experienced leading competition matters in dispute resolution, compliance, enforcement and investigation.
Role
The minister appoints the code supervisor under the food and grocery code
The code sets the required functions of the Code Supervisor.
Review supplier requests
The Code Supervisor reviews how supplier's complaints are handled under the code.
Annual survey
To assess the code's operation, the Code Supervisor conducts an annual survey of suppliers and large grocery businesses.
Identify grocery supply chain issues
The survey helps identify emerging and systemic issues in the grocery supply chain from the previous financial year.
Under the code, it must also identify:
- if any suppliers feared retribution from large grocery businesses and
- suppliers’ experience of large grocery businesses contracting out of certain obligations.
Other findings and activities
The survey assesses suppliers’ knowledge of their rights under the code and their willingness and ability to access them.
It measures how the survey results affect different suppliers depending on the business size and category of goods they supply.
Large grocery businesses are asked to complete a separate survey to support the Code Supervisor's understanding of the grocery sector.
Annual report
The Code Supervisor’s annual report outlines the completed activities and annual survey findings for the financial year.
Independent Reviewer
The Code Supervisor replaced the Independent Reviewer on 1 April 2025.
The Independent Reviewer functions were in the previous 2015 food and grocery code.
They oversaw dispute resolution between suppliers and major retailers or wholesalers.