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SUMMARY OF SUBMISSIONS ON THE PROPOSAL FOR NZFSA TO MANAGE THE EVALUATION OF RISK BASED MANAGEMENT PLANS: ACCOMPANYING STATEMENT

March 2008

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) received a large volume of detailed submissions on the Public Discussion Document No 11/07: Proposal for NZFSA to Manage the Evaluation of Risk Based Management Plans and is appreciative of the time and resources put into the preparation of submissions. The Discussion Document generated robust debate and the submissions provided valuable comments, both about the current system of evaluation and the way in which evaluation could develop in the future.

The majority of submitters were opposed to the proposal that NZFSA should manage evaluation in the future. As a result, and in acknowledgement of industry opinion, NZFSA has decided not to proceed with implementing the proposal.

Many submitters did, however, agree with the NZFSA assessment that problems exist with the current system of evaluation. Submitters made suggestions about possible enhancements that could be made to evaluation, but which would not necessitate NZFSA assuming an overall management function. These suggestions included strengthening mechanisms for monitoring the quality of evaluation, time limited registration, enhanced training for evaluators, and additional resources for evaluators, such as checklists or template reports.

NZFSA will now analyse the suggestions made about enhancements; explore other ideas that may come forward to address problems and then consider how these might be further developed or implemented. NZFSA will take advantage of opportunities to discuss this analysis during regular meetings with industry in the coming months, such as the forthcoming NZFSA workshop for evaluators. Any significant enhancements to evaluation that might be proposed as a result would then be the subject of a further information or discussion paper from NZFSA in due course.