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The First Three Years

Animal Products Group – opening doors for New Zealand’s exports

Tony Zohrab, Director: Animal Products Group

When NZFSA was created three years ago, the then- MAF Animal Products Group (APG) was in the midst of implementing the Animal Products Act (APA), one of the most important single pieces of legislation to facilitate the transition to a risk-based regulatory regime.

The first three years saw the structured adoption of risk management programmes (RMPs) under the Act with major processors first in line. At the end of this period more than 400 such programmes had been registered, and only smaller operators were still to move into the RMP regime.

APG set standards for RMPs, regulator control schemes and market access for the primary production and export of animal products including meat, game, seafood and honey. The Group also ensured compliance with standards, negotiated market access for New Zealand animal products, provided export assurances through the MAF (now NZFSA) Verification Agency, accredited verifiers and other service providers, and registered RMPs.

Such a significant sea-change in the food regulatory regime requires inevitable refinements, and running in parallel with the implementation of the APA was a programme to enhance and simplify the new regime. Two amendments to the Act were passed in September 2002, and APG worked on legislation to bring dairy products under the APA regime.

Residue levels, monitoring and surveillance and a regulated control scheme for shellfish were also the subject of APG’s legislative and technical policy work.

The Group contributed both domestically and internationally to the NZFSA-wide push to align regulatory regimes. This work included further efforts to streamline all aspects of risk management plans, from approvals through to verification.

Following the establishment of NZFSA in 2002, APG’s responsibilities broadened from a primary export focus to include other food safety issues, one of which has been the non-commercial shellfish biotoxin programme. New Zealand expertise in this area is recognized internationally. A world-leading method for detecting marine biotoxins was developed in this country, and APG’s Programme Manager (Seafood) was invited to chair a Codex Committee working group on biotoxins in shellfish.

As part of its responsibility to establish standards for animal products, APG focused on a broad range of issues during its first three years. These are just some of the areas in which excellent progress was made:

• products for human consumption

• products for animal consumption

• residue risks and monitoring

• risk to human health from E. coli 0157:H7 in bobby calves

• petfood processing.

Well-targeted data gathering is essential if food safety is to be monitored effectively. To this end, the residue database was improved to ensure testing and sampling are targeted to best effect.

The Domestic Food Review will impact on risk management programmes and the way they are run. As this review gathered pace, APG began to prioritise the industry codes of practice that are frameworks for RMP development. The Group also worked to simplify requirements within the specifications for RMPs and ensure they were properly aligned with other legislation.

The close working relationship between the former MAF Verification Agency (MAF VA) and the Animal Products Group was acknowledged throughout the first three years – first by a physical move of MAF VA management staff to share the offices of NZFSA, and then by the joining of the Agency with NZFSA from 1 July 2004.

Perhaps the most exciting area for APG during its first three years was that of market access. While much of this work is routine and highly technical, this period was punctuated by some important breakthroughs in New Zealand’s trade relations.

One of the most significant developments was the progress made under the New Zealand/EU Veterinary Agreement. Although initially negotiated in 1996, this Agreement did not come into force until early 2003.

While that milestone had symbolic importance, what really matters to New Zealand exporters is the acceptance by the EU of the technical equivalence submissions, in which New Zealand standards are accepted as delivering outcomes that match EU standards.

Successes in relation to technical equivalence submissions are often built on years of preparatory work and contribute importantly to maintaining New Zealand’s market access. The favourable conditions negotiated through the Veterinary Agreement were amplified in May 2005 with the accession of 10 further states to the EU. During this period, APG also successfully simplified many of the market access requirements for Europe and other countries. Bilateral treaties on sanitary arrangements have also been an important focus.

The New Zealand-developed E-cert system for electronic certification of export shipments went ahead in leaps and bounds during the first three years, and is now gaining traction internationally. Australia, Canada and the United States have all endorsed the system and, by 2003, all APEC countries had committed to adopting and implementing the model.

BSE is another area where risks of incursion are low but potential costs to exporters are high. Efforts intensified during the first three years to reinforce New Zealand’s level of surveillance assurance, and to ensure our systems for excluding this disease remain robust.

With the restructuring of NZFSA in July 2005, the Animal Products Group, along with other product-based groups, ceased to exist. Its functions are now carried out by horizontal groups within NZFSA.