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Compliance

Operating principles

The Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Group is responsible for the registration of agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines, and monitoring their importation, manufacture, sale and use.

The ACVM Group compliance process is aimed to ensure that the responsibilities above are met and that all the products on the New Zealand market satisfy the registration requirements of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act 1997.

To enable us to achieve this we have developed some compliance operating principles. These principles give an outline of the process we undertake when a compliance incident is reported to the Group.

If you want information on how the ACVM Group manages complaints and compliance issues, the ACVM compliance operating principles can be downloaded from the website through the following pathway: http://www.maf.govt.nz/acvm/publications/information-papers/compl-op-principles.pdf

Incidents

A number of compliance issues have been reported over the last quarter. Most are resolved after contact with the proprietor but some are currently being investigated with a view to possible prosecution. In particular the ACVM Group is investigating:

• an unregistered product that contains glucosamine and chondroitin;
• an unregistered product that makes therapeutic claims for diseases that cause pain and distress.

We wish to advise that the ACVM Group does not look on these incidents lightly and will take action where there are significant breaches of the legislation. The penalties for non compliance are higher under the ACVM Act than they were under the Animal Remedies and Pesticides Acts. These are $30,000 for an individual and up to $150,000 for a company or organisation.

Labelling Guide for Toxic Substances

The Ministry of Health has updated the New Zealand Labelling Guide for Toxic Substances. This guide provides the basis for determining the acceptability of statements designed to protect human health on labels of plant compounds (e.g. pesticides) and veterinary medicines. The ACVM Group currently provides advice on these statements on behalf of the Ministry of Health (for those products that are not Deadly or Dangerous Poisons).

Because of changes to the guide, the ACVM Group will be changing labels when they are submitted or during the transition process to comply with the updated document. The principal change involves the first aid statement, as vomiting is no longer advised. Instead labels should not advise vomiting, but should advise that the National Poisons Information Centre should be contacted. First Aid statements should include the telephone number of the National Poisons Centre 0800 POISON (0800 764 766).

There has also been a change in the way that the labels of Deadly and Dangerous Poisons are handled. These need approval from both the Ministry of Health and the Pesticides or Animal Remedies Boards (whichever is relevant). In future, the Ministry of Health will directly contact applicants with their requirements. In a parallel operation, the Board advice regarding labels will still come from the ACVM Group and applicants are advised to ensure that they have both sets of comments prior to finalising labels, which they will send directly to Health for their sign-off. Health will then send the labels that they have signed-off to the Boards for final approval.