- Print Friendly - Help

Previous page  | Contents  |  Next page

WEBSITE

The front door is open– Come visit!

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has been in existence for two months and, like most organisations, our website is our front door. We like to think the door is open, inviting and friendly, and we hope you'll come visit us (www.nzfsa.govt.nz/acvm). 

Laurence Clear has worked hard to develop and improve the ACVM part of the website. He has spent a considerable amount of time making the ACVM web pages more user-friendly and useful.

Now visitors to the website can download documents they would otherwise have had to order. And while documents can still be ordered through publishers, most people prefer to get them off the net. It's obviously more efficient, cheaper and saves time. AgVetLink is also posted on the website, and it has its own search function that enables users to find the information they want quickly.

A number of searchable lists include registered veterinary medicines and plant compounds, a list of registered pesticides as well as lists of maximum residue limits and licensed animal remedies. There is also a mailing list users can join to get the e-mail advice of when the information on the site is updated. That's a lot of lists and a lot of work.

The website has all that you would expect plus some added highlights that you probably haven't noticed – like the rotating picture on the front of the ACVM pages. It means that each time you visit you see a different picture, and it demonstrates the wide-ranging nature of the work done by the ACVM Group.

ACVM Director Debbie Morris says the website looks great and Laurence has accomplished his target of making it more user-friendly. 'Within a matter of days of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority becoming established we had a huge list of maximum residue limits on the website and were answering people's concerns and requests for information,' Debbie says. 'I think Laurence has done a wonderful job. It's a tool that we are only just scratching the surface of in terms of providing ease of access to information outside of our normal  processes.'

Laurence says he has enjoyed working on the website. 'Parts of it are fun like any job. The website is a work in progress. It isn't a final thing, it's constantly updated and changing.' While we have had a lot of positive feedback, we would welcome comments on how to improve it for users. Comments can be e-mailed to acvm@nzfsa.govt.nz

Standards update

The following standards have been updated and are available for comment on the website (www.nzfsa.govt.nz/acvm) under 'Discussion Documents':

• New Zealand Labelling Guide for Veterinary Medicines Requiring Registration
• ACVM Registration Standard and Guideline for Therapeutic Equivalance of Trade Name Products (replaces Bioequivalence Standard)
• ACVM Registration Standard and Guideline for Determination of a Residue Withholding Period for  Veterinary Medicines (A2, B1, B2, C4 and C8 applications)

Please send comments on any of these documents to:

Chris Boland
(Programme Manager-Technical Policy)
ACVM Group
New Zealand Food Safety Authority
PO Box 2835, WELLINGTON
E-mail: christopher.boland@nzfsa.govt.nz

Closing date for comments is 31 October 2002.

Public comments on the ACVM Standard for Good Manufacturing Practice and the ACVM Guideline for Good Manufacturing Practice have been received and the two documents are being finalised. They will be available soon on the website or from Manor House Press (see enclosed order form).

GRAS lists

The three GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) lists:

• For inclusion in oral nutritional compounds
• For inclusion in veterinary medicines
• For inclusion in plant compounds

are now available on the ACVM part of the website in a searchable format. The searchable lists include all of the products that have been through the approval process but which may not yet have been promulgated in the regulations. Where they are not yet promulgated, the ACVM Group will take the approval into account in class determinations or in evalu-ation of applications.