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The chemical residue and contaminant status of New Zealand foods

Monitoring and surveillance

New Zealand’s monitoring and surveillance programmes are designed to confirm the effectiveness of controls and practices to ensure that chemical residues in our food do not breach any regulatory thresholds.

These monitoring and surveillance programmes measure the effectiveness of registration controls on veterinary medicines and the conditions as per the product label, as well as good agricultural practice. They are not the primary residue control measures.

NZFSA’s national chemical residue monitoring programmes are used to:

• assess the effectiveness of New Zealand controls and practices that ensure the chemical residue status of slaughtered animals, and the food products from animals intended for consumption, are safe and comply with regulatory residue thresholds

• identify if, when and why industry/national controls and practices have failed to provide the required conformance and to then ensure that appropriate corrective procedures are implemented

• identify the non-complying occurrence of contaminants or presence of agricultural compounds in animal products and if necessary remove any affected product from the human food chain

• carry out intensive surveillance testing of at-risk animals or product to eliminate future residue non-compliances from the identified risk source

• provide information to allow NZFSA to negotiate market access, equivalence agreements and mitigate risks to trade

• provide consumer information on the safety of the food they consume.

If non-complying product is found, NZFSA implements traceback and investigative procedures to identify the cause of the non-complying residues and contaminants, sometimes using Geographical Information Systems.

Several programmes or regulated control schemes operate under the animal products regime: bivalve molluscan shellfish; limited processing fishing vessels; dairy product; and non-dairy animal products.

The National Chemical Contaminants, National Chemical Residue and Shellfish Biotoxin Monitoring programmes are authorised by the following statutory regulations under the Animal Products Act 1999:

• Dairy industry (National Residue Monitoring Programme) Regulations 2002

• Animal Products (Regulated Control Scheme – Contaminants Monitoring and Surveillance) Regulations 2004

• Animal Products (Regulated Control Scheme – Bivalve Molluscan Shellfish) Regulations 2006.

These regulations may be supported by statutory notices to give effect to certain aspects of the regulations.

As the Animal Products Act has the power to issue chemical thresholds similar to MRLs, largely for market access purposes, monitoring programmes under the Act test to two thresholds: the MRLs (including relevant MRLs in the Food Standard Code arising from the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Treaty with Australia) under the Food Act; and MPLs (Maximum Permissible Levels) and Action Levels under the Animal Products Act.

Chemical residue analysis is performed on random samples undertaken by NZFSA-approved laboratories, using approved methods that have been fully validated. Analytical services are provided under legal contracts after open tendering and transparent tender evaluation. The contracts have extensive technical manuals attached setting out the particular requirements appropriate to each programme.

Extensive quality controls are in place to ensure the laboratory results are valid. Regular audits of the laboratories are conducted by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) and by NZFSA. Additionally the laboratories are required to take part in international proficiency studies; some samples are resubmitted as blinded samples and the laboratories themselves conduct extensive internal quality control under independent quality managers to ensure that reported results are accurate.

NZFSA monitoring programmes

National Chemical Contaminants Programme

The Dairy Residue Monitoring Programme (also known as the National Chemical Contaminants Programme) tests raw (unpasteurised) milk at the farm and before it is transferred to the tanker or dairy factory. As with the National Chemical Residue Programme below, it tests for a wide range of agricultural compounds and contaminants.

National Chemical Residue Programme

The National Chemical Residue Programme tests animal products (meat from animals, birds and salmon, as well as honey) for registered veterinary medicines and agricultural compounds, deregistered agricultural chemicals that are persistent environmental contaminants, banned or restricted substances and toxic agents (eg, poisons used to control possums).

Food Residue Surveillance Programme

The Food Residue Surveillance Programme complements the other programmes by providing an opportunity for detailed investigation of specified foods. Food and residue combinations for investigation are prioritised annually, with the FRSP focusing mainly on plant products and imported foods.

Shellfish Biotoxin Monitoring Programme

The Shellfish Biotoxin Monitoring Programme surveys algal biotoxin levels produced in molluscan bivalve shellfish for both the export and domestic market. This information is also used by Public Health Units who advise on closing beaches for recreational taking of shellfish.

Bee Products for Export Programme

The Bee Products for Export Programme is authorised by the Animal Products (Regulated Control Scheme – Verification of Contaminants in Bee Products for Export) Notice 2008. This programme is essentially for market access purposes. Most honey producers, however, process for both the export and domestic markets and so the programme has very high product coverage.

Total Diet Survey

The Total Diet Survey is carried out every five or six years. It estimates New Zealanders’ dietary exposure to agricultural chemicals, contaminants (such as cadmium and mercury) and selected nutrients.