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Some egg producers exempted

17 March 2005

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority announced today that egg producers with flocks of 100 female birds or less are to be exempt from the requirement to have a Risk Management Programme (RMP).

The exemption, approved by Cabinet, will apply to those producers who have 100 female birds or less and sell all their eggs directly to consumers, either via gate sales, at farmers' markets or by home delivery. It will not cover those producers who sell any of their eggs on to intermediaries, such as dairies, bakers and petrol stations.
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Cherie Flynn, NZFSA's Programme Manager (Animal Products and Food Act) explains: "The exemption is based on an evaluation of risk and not the method of production. The Animal Products Act 1999 requires that before the Minister can recommend an exemption, she must be satisfied that the risk to human or animal health as a result of that exemption would be negligible.

"In this instance, negligibility was considered in terms of the size of the potential impact of sales from 100 birds on human health: that is, the number of people who would potentially be affected if the eggs were found to be contaminated. Higher flock limits were considered but the risk to human health was not considered negligible."

The decision comes after NZFSA held a public consultation on the proposals. The original proposal was to exempt only gate sales without limit to flock size. NZFSA took on industry concerns that a blanket gate sales exemption could be open to abuse, as well as the concerns of very small producers that exempting gate sales only would not reflect the traditional practice of home deliveries and sales at farmers' markets.

Legislation surrounding egg production was transferred from the Food Act to the Animal Products Act in 1999. Those egg producers who pay the egg commodities levy had till 1 July 2004 to register their RMPs with NZFSA. All other primary egg producers who are not exempted by this proposal have until 1 July 2005 to get their RMPs registered.

An RMP template has been developed by NZFSA and is available for download from the website: www.nzfsa.govt.nz/animalproducts/subject/eggs/egg-rmp-template.pdf. Amendments to the Animal Product Act currently before Parliament will allow those egg producers who are not exempt but who are using the NZFSA's RMP template to avoid certain compliance costs.

Those primary egg processors who follow the approved template will not need to get an independent evaluation of their RMP, prior to its registration.

Egg producers should be able to complete the template themselves without having to employ a consultant. NZFSA is planning a programme of workshops throughout New Zealand which will help egg producers complete the template.

The regulatory requirements were brought in as a preventative measure. For example, Salmonella enteriditus is common in both the UK and US poultry flocks but not in New Zealand. The new requirements will ensure that, if the problem does surface here, we are prepared for it.

Cherie Flynn explains: "The changes are good news for egg producers. They will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and enable people to buy eggs from very small producers of their choice while ensuring that necessary safeguards are in place to control risks to human health and protect New Zealand's world-class reputation as a producer of safe food."

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For further information contact: Diane Robinson, Senior Communications Adviser.
Tel: 04 463 2528 or 021 193 6405