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Non-Commercial Wild Food in New Zealand

2 Background

In late 2001, routine monitoring picked up high levels of brodifacoum poison (a vertebrate toxic agent) in wild pigs that had been presented for commercial processing. It was likely that other wild pigs from the same area were hunted for non-commercial purposes and consumed by hunters and their friends and families, without them knowing the meat was contaminated.

Brodifacoum is commonly used to kill possums in the bush, and the wild pigs may have consumed contaminated possum carcasses, ingesting low levels of the poison.

These concerns highlighted a need to examine the potential contaminant status of wild food, and NZFSA commenced a review of non-commercial wild food in New Zealand in July 2004.

The purpose of the review was to gain a better understanding of wild food consumption in order to determine if there were risks to public health, and if so, to explore ways to manage or minimise that risk.

A key objective of the first stage of the review was to identify data gaps and food/hazard combinations for further investigation and research, and to identify areas where education would be beneficial. The chemical and microbial risks people are exposed to via wild food in New Zealand had not been comprehensively assessed, so NZFSA commissioned Environmental and Scientific Research Ltd (ESR) to assess these risks in a wide range of wild foods.

As part of the research and consultation process, a focus group of Māori experts was convened to provide a forum to inform the review. The Māori Focus Group identified species for inclusion in the ESR review and had input into the preparation of the draft position paper.

The Māori Focus Group did not function as a representative body of iwi authorities or other Māori organisations, but rather drew upon its members’ individual knowledge and that of their personal networks and experience to assist NZFSA with the review by identifying:

• potential food safety issues for Māori arising from the harvesting and consumption of non-commercial wild foods

• food preparation practices that have been, are being, or could be used to address food safety issues

• how to obtain information on the types of animals, fish, seafood and plants that are consumed by Māori, and also the frequency of consumption

• existing research/information which refers to issues for Māori in the harvesting and consumption of non-commercial wild foods

• key Māori groups, stakeholders and appropriate communications processes for NZFSA in working with Māori, should ongoing issues be identified by the Focus Group in the review

• if there is a role for NZFSA in terms of further research, information sharing etc to assist with raising the level of awareness concerning food safety issues related to the customary harvesting and consumption of non-commercial wild foods.

In July 2005, NZFSA released a Draft Position Paper, which set out proposals to better manage the safety of wild foods (see Appendix 1). The Paper was accompanied by the completed ESR report. The Draft Position Paper (drawing on the ESR paper) concluded that though wild foods may not present a significant food safety risk, there was a lack of reliable information on harvesting, consumption and contamination.

NZFSA sought the views of interested people on ways to gain a more comprehensive understanding of wild food consumption and on the proposals set out in the Draft Position Paper. Submissions and comments received (see Appendix 2) were analysed, and used to inform the preparation of work relating to wild food that NZFSA has committed to undertake, and which is outlined in this paper.

Scope

For the purposes of the review, and for related future work that NZFSA will undertake, wild food has been defined as:

“Any food that is naturally present or occurring in the New Zealand environment that is

(a) non-commercially harvested, gathered or taken from that environment

(b) is not traded or sold

(c) is for human consumption, either raw or processed.”

As such, wild foods include:

• feral land animals (e.g. deer, goats, pig, rabbits)

• birds (e.g. waterfowl, pheasants, mutton birds)

• fish (marine and freshwater, including eel, whitebait, trout)

• marine invertebrates (e.g. shellfish, paua, kina, sea snails)

• freshwater invertebrates (e.g. crayfish, mussels)

• insects and insect products (e.g. huhu grubs, wild honey)

• plants (e.g. puha, poroporo, ferns, nettles)

• water plants (e.g. watercress, seaweed)

• fruit (e.g. berries, nuts, seeds)

• fungi.

No intention to regulate non-commercial wild food

The freedom to harvest food from the wild is considered part of the ‘kiwi’ way of life. There is no intention to regulate the hunting and gathering of wild food for personal consumption; the purpose of the review was to gauge the risks to public health from such activities, and to look at non-regulatory options to manage or reduce those food hazard risks. NZFSA’s future work relating to wild food will focus on non-regulatory activities.

Exclusions from the review

The review focused on the food safety and public health aspects of wild food consumption. Issues outside the scope of the review included:

• the sustainability of harvesting flora and fauna

• conservation and habitat restoration

• pest control (types of poisons, delivery methods, etc)

• pollution of waterways and the shoreline

• traditional harvesting rights (relating to kaitiaki , tikanga, mahinga kai, etc)

• fishing and shellfish quotas and restrictions

• medicinal plants.

Though many of these issues are related and were mentioned in the review, they were only looked at in relation to current knowledge and activities. Proposals that would impact on areas that are the responsibility of other areas of government, such as the Department of Conservation (DoC), the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) and local and regional councils were not considered. However, the review took "connecting the dots" look at what these agencies are doing that could assist people to hunt and gather safer food, such as information DoC holds in relation to pest poison programmes, or ERMA's recent review of 1080.