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Domestic Food Review

Latest update
General scheme of new regime – What it will look like
Risk Management Tools
NZFSA working with local councils
How do I find out more information?
Related links

A new system to regulate the domestic food industry has been designed following four years of consultation and policy development. While a new Food Bill is being developed to enshrine the new system in law, some parts of it are being trialled under the current Food Act.

Why the need for change?

New Zealand’s food regulatory regime has not been thoroughly reviewed for over 30 years.

The Domestic Food Review documented a number of problems with New Zealand’s current food regime. These included:

• the total cost to New Zealand society from foodborne illness, due to a number of foodborne pathogens, is estimated to be $86 million per annum. Approximately 90% of this cost is attributable to lost productivity due to absence from the work force; and

• three different food regimes and three separate regulators operating simultaneously, with resulting poor lines of accountability and unnecessary confusion, inconsistency, duplication and complexity.

Latest update

The Government has agreed to a revised Food Bill with changes to improve certainty for business and further reduce compliance costs. A link to the paper presented to Cabinet along with a new regulatory impact statement in respect of the changes to the proposed regime and press release can be found below.

Cabinet paper Sub BN 09-01

Two page summary of the proposed changes (Attachment 1)

2009 Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) (Attachment 2)

General scheme of new regime – What it will look like

The new regulatory regime seeks to reduce the prescriptive nature of the existing system and move to an outcomes-based regulatory system. The new regime will require all food businesses to apply the risk management tool assigned to their sector. An overview of the three risk management tools can be found below.

Risk Management Tools

There are a number of tools that business can use.

• Food Control Plans
A Food Control Plan consists of a set of procedures which document the controls a business has in place to manage each risk in their particular process. A food control plan can either be off-the-peg or custom made.

• National Programmes
National programmes will be the primary risk management tool. The scope of the national programmes will be around the minimum regulatory requirements that a food business will need to comply with to assure food safety. There will be up to four levels of national programmes which will be differentiated based on risk, impact on consumers, expected compliance rate and cost benefit.

• Food Handler Guidance
Food Handler Guidance brochures are a non regulatory tool designed to provide food safety advice to people who sell food infrequently or who or, as part of their business sell food to few people.

More about risk management tools

NZFSA working with local councils

Before the new Food Bill is passed, NZFSA and most of New Zealand’s local councils are working together in a scheme called the Voluntary Implementation Programme to implement an off-the-peg Food Control Plan for the food service and catering sectors.

• Voluntary Implementation Programme

• Councils that are participating in the Voluntary Implementation Plans

• Territorial Authorities - this page contains information for local council staff involved with the distribution of Food Control Plans.

How do I find out more information?

• Your local council will keep you up-to-date with developments.

- Contact details for your local council [Local Government Online]

• NZFSA produces a free quarterly newsletter (4degreesC) for food retail businesses which you can subscribe to by sending an email to: 4dCEditor@nzfsa.govt.nz or call 0800 693 721.

• Bookmark this page to read updates on the changes!