- Print Friendly - Help

AgVetLink April 2003

Previous page  | Contents |  Next page

---

Recent events

• The Australian NRA (National Registration Authority) has changed its name and is now the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).
  The website address is http://www.apvma.gov.au/
• The last AVMAC meeting was held in Wellington on 27 February. See page 8 for an overview of what was discussed.
• An Industry Liaison Group meeting was held on 27 February.
• The 12 th Food Safety Quadrilateral meeting was held in Queenstown from 17-21 March and was attended by Debbie Morris from the ACVM Group. See page 6 for details.
• The NZFSA conference 'Building and Maintaining Confidence in New Zealand Food' was held in Auckland on 25 and 26 March and was attended by 250 delegates from a wide range of food and food related industries. See article at right.
• Chris Boland and Sarah Lester attended a Growsafe Trainers Course in Rotorua on 2 April.
• The ACVM Group's new dis-cretionary data assessment service commenced on 1 April.
  The data assessment is now separate from regulatory review and evaluation. This means that assessment reports are returned to the applicant at the end of the data assessment. Alternatively, the assessment of any, or all, of the data may be carried out by an independent third party using the data assessment templates and standards available on the website.
  For more information, see the ACVM Group's website under 'Data Assessment Service'.

New Zealand Food Safety Authority conference - 'Building and Maintaining Confidence in New Zealand Food'

The NZFSA conference was held at the Stanford Plaza Hotel in Auckland and was opened by the Minister for Food Safety, Hon Annette King. The programme offered a range of national and international speakers. Well-known New Zealand names included Dick Hubbard, CEO of Hubbards Foods, and Tom Lambie, National President of Federated Farmers.

Some interesting perspectives were covered by the international speakers - Debbie Peters from Food Operations Australia and Sue Dibb from the United Kingdom National Consumers Council were both very well received. Louis Carson from the United States Food and Drug Administration provided a detailed presentation on the new requirements that are coming into place in the USA in response to bioterrorism. These will impact on almost all New Zealand exporters to the area in the short to medium term.

The ACVM Group hosted one of the workshop sessions and, while there were a few well-known faces, we also had the opportunity to talk with a number of people we don't normally see. Because the workshop was small, we were able to concentrate on dealing with issues and questions that were raised from the floor, such as the linkage with ERMA NZ and the HSNO Act, adding minor uses to labels, changes to PAR controls, and how exemptions and the GRAS lists operate.

The workshop of interest on the second day covered the terms of reference for the proposed strategic review of imported food and food related products (see page 9). While the process is being led by Tim Knox in his capacity as Acting Director of the Retail and Imported Foods area, this is also of interest to the ACVM Group because many of the risks posed by imported foods are also posed by the importation of animal feeds and feed ingredients - both of which are managed under the ACVM Act (in conjunction with the Biosecurity Act 1993).

ANNUAL FEES 1 July 2003 - 30 June 2004

All registrants will receive a letter in May outlining this year's annual fees for all registered plant compounds and veterinary medicines. Included in this mail out will be your product list.

Any changes, updates or cancellations will need to be submitted to the ACVM Group by Friday, 13 June 2003.

If you have any queries, please contact:

Sarah Smyth Coordinator (Business Services) Phone: 04 463 2553 Email: sarah.smyth@nzfsa.govt.nz