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Reply to: Kerre Woodham (It’s getting hard to stomach…)

28 June 2005

RIGHT OF REPLY: Herald on Sunday

The column by Kerre Woodham (26 June) does a disservice to your readers by providing very few facts and many fictions. The truth on the Domestic Food Review is:

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority is reviewing the legislation covering the sale of food in New Zealand. Both the 1974 Food Hygiene Regulations and the 1981 Food Act cover ‘all food for sale’. That means food sold at or for fundraisers is already covered by law. We are not focused on this aspect of the legislation, but it is being reviewed – along with the rest of ‘all food for sale’.

“Dodgy restaurants” are also already covered in the same legislation, and the regulations relating to these are also being reviewed. In addition, a little research, or a chat to any restaurateur who knows their business, would have revealed that NZFSA is not involved in the inspection of premises – that is the current role of New Zealand’s 74 local authorities. These same local authorities also administer requirements around fundraising food sales – and have done for the last 30 years. A Google search using the terms “fundraising food stall” will bring up a host of local authority requirements. Auckland City’s By-laws state: There is a demand for food outlets of a temporary nature such as flea market stalls, street stalls and mobile shops often located at fairs and fund raising venues. The nature of these operations presents potentially higher risks than established premises and it is necessary to develop appropriate minimum standards.

This Part of the Bylaw addresses a deficiency in current legislation.

It aims to establish adequate food hygiene standards for food stalls and similar operations. This objective is facilitated by setting minimum operational, construction and maintenance requirements.

The risk identified by NZFSA has clearly been recognised by other competent regulatory authorities.

Kerre Woodham also suggests that NZFSA raise public awareness about food-handling practices. Had she read the media release, plain-English brochure or the discussion papers themselves she would have found that this is, indeed, our preferred option in application to fundraising events. In addition, we are also active in publishing a wide range of popular public education and information materials, both as NZFSA and as a key member of the New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership. A visit to the NZFSA website would have revealed not only a wealth of information on the Domestic Food Review, but also this huge quantity of public education material.

While Ms Woodham may not have heard of anyone becoming ill from an event where food was served, food safety experts at most public health units could tell a different story, and a discussion with any of the university and Institute of Environmental and Scientific Research food scientists collecting and analyzing data in this area will show that many New Zealanders make mistakes when preparing food.

As a society, we have three options in dealing with risk or potential risk: regulate, educate or ignore the issue. In relation to many of these fund-raising events, our preferred option would be to focus on education. However that is for the community to decide, and that is why we are publicly reviewing the existing regulations over a period of years rather than months, in as high profile a manner as we can. We too hope that the community will make submissions on what they would like to see in terms of regulation, if any, of fund raising events.

Papers 6 and 7 (covering Compliance and Sanctions, and Criteria and Processes for Various Approvals) in the Domestic Food Review are open for consultation, and are available on the NZFSA website at http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/policy-law/projects/domestic-food-review/index.htm or in hardcopy by calling freephone 0800 693 721.

Andrew McKenzie, Executive Director, New Zealand Food Safety Authority