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Food Focus August 2008

In focus

Commitment to food recognised

Two of NZFSA’s long-serving staff have been honoured for their commitment to food

Assistant Director (Production and Processing) Judy Barker and Programme Manager (Composition) with the Joint Food Standards’ nutrition team, John van den Beuken, have been made fellows of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST).

Both John and Judy are Food Technology graduates and have extensive involvement with both international Codex standards and domestic food safety standards.

The awards were presented at NZIFST’s conference in June. Fellowship is an honour bestowed on a member to recognise their substantial contribution or outstanding service to the profession of food science and technology. Two other NZFSA staff members have been made fellows in the past.

NZFSA Chief Executive Andrew McKenzie is delighted with his staff’s induction to NZIFST’s roll of honour. “Judy and John are highly valued members of our team and it is great to see them recognised for their hard work and dedication to ensure the safety of New Zealand’s food.”

Snails, vodka and smart cookies in food awards

New Zealand’s first commercially farmed snails, vodka jellies and a smart cookie are among 45 finalists in the 2008 Massey University Food Awards

The biennial Massey University Food Awards are highly regarded by the New Zealand food manufacturing industry. The Awards recognise the creative work of product innovators in the food and beverage industry, acknowledging areas such as packaging design, nutrition, enterprise and food safety.

NZFSA sponsors the Food Safety Award, which is only open to category-winning products and additional entries considered to be of high standard by the judging panel. All products eligible for this Award will have demonstrated that all food regulatory and/or certification requirements have been met. In addition, the winning product will demonstrate outstanding features in one or more characteristics designed to improve safety, wholesomeness or truth in labelling.

The second stage of judging, when finalists provide additional information to their preliminary entries, has been completed. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 20 October.

Information about the awards is on the website: foodawards.massey.ac.nz.

Lianne Dalziel crosses fingers over campy

When Food Safety Minister Lianne Dalziel visited Fieldays in June she was able to announce that New Zealand’s rates of campylobacteriosis were finally dropping

The 40th New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays at Hamilton, in the midst of our farming community, was an opportune event to share the good news that NZFSA’s Camplyobacter in poultry strategy appears to be paying off. Lianne Dalziel made the announcement at NZFSA’s stand where she also spent time with children sleuthing their way through the new ‘FBI Case File’ (see ‘Solving food safety crimes’).

Although too early to fully attribute this downward trend in campylobacteriosis to the strategy, the June results show the trend is continuing (a graph of the rates over time can be seen in the article ‘Multi-pronged approach to Campylobacter’). As Lianne Dalziel said in her speech on the day: “It seems fitting that I can be here at Mystery Creek, where visitors get to enjoy the best of what our agricultural industry has to offer, to express my appreciation for the significant achievement that has seen the number of notified cases of campylobacteriosis for the first quarter of this year lower than it has been for at least twelve years.”

Epidemiology prize for NZFSA science student

The inaugural prize for best paper and presentation for the epidemiology stream was announced at the New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) conference in June.

The Epidemiology Branch of the NZVA this year ran a prize at the annual conference for the best paper and presentation by a student enrolled in post-graduate epidemiology training.

The judging panel struggled to separate the top few candidates but all three judges were unanimous in their rating of one candidate – Petra Mullner, a PhD student with NZFSA’s Science group. Petra’s winning paper was on molecular and modelling tools for Campylobacter source attribution.

Award for Kiwi nutritionists

The New Zealand Nutrition Foundation and Kellogg New Zealand have re-launched an award for nutrition professionals.

The Nutritionist Development Award was first established in 1994 to promote academic and professional development support in nutrition, with the goal of improving the nutritional status of New Zealanders. It has been reinstated in an effort to boost the careers, knowledge and skills of nutritionists here.

The Award will be presented on Thursday 4th September. For more information contact Sue Pollard, NZ Nutrition Foundation, on 09 489 3417, or email nznf@nutrition.org.nz.

Watch out for Foodsafe week

Foodsafe Week this year is 10–16 November so keep an eye out for Foodsafe Freddie on the TV.

Foodsafe Week is when the New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership promotes safe food practices with a TV campaign and events throughout the week. This is a good time for schools to have a Foodsafe Day when students can learn about food safety and show off their food handling knowledge.

For more information or to order resources:

• visit the website www.foodsafe.org.nz

• email info@nzfsa.govt.nz

• phone 0800 693 721.