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The First Five years

New Zealand Standards Group – safe food from home and abroad

Tim Knox, Director: New Zealand Standards Group (2002–2007)*

Despite the enviable reputation of New Zealand-produced food products around the world, our record for foodborne illness on the home front could be better. Against this background, the range of locally produced and imported foods has been growing rapidly alongside the widening diversity of New Zealand’s population. Also subject to constant change has been the range of hazards associated with the foods New Zealanders eat.

One of the greatest challenges facing NZFSA since its launch has been to align the way we manage the safety of food consumed in New Zealand across the food chain. This requires a risk-based approach built on good science and reliable data wherever possible.

At the end of the first five years, responsibility for meeting this challenge has been vested in the New Zealand Standards Group. The Group took its current form in 2005, following an internal restructure away from sector-based groupings to a structure based on generic functions reaching across all sectors. The Group comprises staff from the former Domestic and Imported Food, Animal Products and Dairy and Plant Products Groups.

Within the Group, teams are formed around:

• technical standards

• production and processing

• food service, sale and imports.

Building capabilities around these areas has been a focus from the beginning, and the Group has worked hard to attract people with sought-after skills in fields such as food technology, veterinary science, public and environmental health and policy development.

Animal Products Act implementation

A major task – the implementation of the Animal Products Act (APA), including dairy products – was completed near the end of the first five years. The Wine Act is also being implemented, with development of codes of practice now well under way.

When NZFSA was created in 2002, the then Animal Products Group was in the midst of implementing the APA. (Part of this former group has since been established within the New Zealand Standards and Export Standards Groups.) The first five years saw the structured adoption of risk management programmes (RMPs) under the APA, with major processors first in line. At the end of this period more than 1000 such programmes had been registered. Running in parallel with the implementation of the APA was a programme to enhance and simplify the new regime. This has included a review of the various codes of practice that provide guidance and information for industry, including the Meat Code of Practice and the Seafood Code of Practice.

In 2005 dairy was incorporated into the APA. The Group is now undertaking a process to align the regimes for dairy and other animal products to provide a consistent platform for industry.

Work on import standards continued throughout, with recent highlights including:

• a review of the import standard for bovine products (for management of the risk from BSE)

• new import health standards for bivalve shellfish

• a new standard which allows the import of Roquefort cheese.

This last marks the first time that sales of raw soft cheeses directly imported from countries other than Australia have been allowed in this country. While most consumers are not at risk from unpasteurised products, some groups such as those with compromised immune systems can be at risk.

Domestic Food Review

Much of the Group’s work programme during the first five years has been shaped by the Domestic Food Review, which has resulted in the drafting of a new Food Bill to replace the existing Food Act 1981 and the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974. A five-year implementation period will see all domestic food safety rules aligned under a single, three-tier risk-based system. (See page 4 for more information on this.) Those who already operate risk management regimes under other legislation, such as the APA or Wine Act, will not be required to develop new regimes but will still be subject to the new Food Bill regime where applicable.

The New Zealand Standards Group has worked closely with operators who will be brought under the new domestic food regime. Templates for Food Control Plans have been trialled with members of the hospitality sector. The emphasis has been on simplicity and adherence to good operating practice using HACCP principles.

Considerable effort has been put into training and education to prepare people working in the affected sectors for the transition.

Imported Food Review

In parallel with the implementation of a new domestic food safety regime, the Group has been reviewing our importing system for food and food-related products. Following a Strategic Review of Regulatory Arrangements for Food Imports, completed in December 2004, a new imported food programme will be implemented over five years.

The review has focused on the regulations encompassing food imports, inter-agency accountabilities, surveillance for foodborne illness and collection of data, benefits of greater harmonisation with Australia, generic risk-management approaches, risk profiling and the flexibility of the current list of prescribed foods.

As with the Domestic Food Review, the system for imported food will also see the level of regulation made appropriate to the level of associated risk. Regulations for imported food will use the same tools, and be under the same legislative umbrella, as the regime for domestically produced food. This will provide consistency, flexibility and fairness, and ensure that the level of regulation is appropriate to the level of risk.

One of the most visible changes to the rules for imported foods is likely to be the increasing use of pre-clearance and acceptance of equivalence (accepting that standards of the exporting country, if met, deliver the same food safety outcomes as our own standards).

Emergency response framework

Since food safety ‘scares’ are a fact of life, the Group commenced an emergency response framework project. This has involved refining the processes for product recalls and for disseminating information. An important aim of the project has been more consistency and transparency with decisions about recalls.

Community extension

Not all groups in New Zealand society face the same food safety risks, and the New Zealand Standards Group has stepped up its community extension work. One such initiative has been the launch of a strategy for working with Māori on food safety and consumer protection issues.

The current focus of the community extension work programme is ‘Te Kai Manawa Ora’ – a Marae-based food safety initiative that focuses on producing resources to help reduce outbreaks of foodborne illness in a Marae setting, and training food handlers to adopt a farm to fork approach to safe kai. This work links with the Ministry of Health’s drinking water programme, the Healthy Eating – Healthy Action initiative and the implementation of NZFSA’s wild food review. It is also designed to be consistent with the outcomes of the Domestic Food review which applies primarily to food for sale.

Communication has been designed to meet the needs of Māori and acknowledge the sanctity of kai from a tikanga Māori perspective. Similar initiatives with other groups including Pasifika peoples and Asian communities are also planned or underway.

Campylobacter strategy

One important ‘single-issue’ challenge has been New Zealand’s continuing high rates of human campylobacteriosis. The New Zealand Standards Group has contributed to the development of a comprehensive three-year risk management strategy for Campylobacter in poultry – a major risk pathway for the disease. The strategy considers interventions throughout the food chain from farm to consumer, with the objective of reducing human exposure to the pathogen. New Zealand’s expertise in this area has been recognised internationally, with the appointment of a New Zealander to chair a Codex Committee working party to develop an international risk-based standard for Campylobacter in poultry.

Wild Foods Review

In 2004 NZFSA undertook a review of wild food eaten in New Zealand. The review collected information on what’s known about the extent of consumption and safety of such foods. NZFSA is now looking to implement the outcomes of that review. This includes a review of the non-commercial shellfish biotoxin programme as well as providing guidance and information to those who hunt or gather wild foods.

Operational activities

The operational aspects of domestic food safety have been and will continue to be the responsibility of Health Protection Officers (HPOs) and Environmental Health Officers (EHOs), who are the public face of the Food Act. HPOs, working in district health boards, carry out various jobs under contract to NZFSA – such as assessing Food Safety Programmes and investigating food complaints or suspected food poisoning outbreaks. HPOs also enforce labelling standards and work with NZFSA to manage food recalls. EHOs are responsible for administering the Food Hygiene Regulations. The New Zealand Standards Group provides technical liaison with respect to the NZFSA–DHB contracts and coordinates NZFSA’s relationship with local councils.

In the animal products area the Group works closely with NZFSA’s Verification Agency and other third-party agencies responsible for providing verification services to this sector.

Trans-Tasman cooperation

The Group has continued working with its Australian counterparts on the alignment of import standards and systems. For example, agreement has been reached on equivalence for domestic food safety programmes for dairy products. Similar equivalence work is now underway for seafood. The goal of this work is to remove the exemption of certain ‘high-risk’ imported foods from the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA) – thus contributing to the Australia/New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA) and the ongoing integration of the New Zealand and Australian economies.

The Group has led NZFSA’s contribution to the implementation subcommittee of the Food Regulation Standing Committee – a committee of senior New Zealand and Australian officials who advise the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Council (Ministerial Council) on food policy issues. The subcommittee’s aim is to further consistency in the implementation of food regulation between Australia and New Zealand.

The Group has also worked with Food Standards Australia New Zealand on alignment of Australian-only primary production standards covering the chain from farm to processing. Work has already been completed on dairy and poultry products, with the programme now focusing on meat and seafood. Alignment to the maximum extent practicable is important for ongoing mutual recognition purposes.

Industry partnership

The partnership with industry organisations in both the retail and production sectors has been strengthened to underpin industry/NZFSA collaboration on codes of practice. The Group has continued to cement its good relationships with the sector groups it has traditionally worked with. At the same time, new relationships are developing with other groups (eg, importers and the hospitality and food service sectors) that come within its sphere as the new domestic food regime takes shape.

* In late 2007 the New Zealand Standards Group merged with Export Standards, following the departure to Biosecurity New Zealand of the former New Zealand Standards director, Tim Knox. Carol Barnao is now director of both groups, and has assumed the title Director, Standards. The terms New Zealand Standards and Export Standards have been retained to describe the groups’ functional elements being brought together.