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Letter to the Editor of grill magazine, May 06

10 May 2006

To the Editor

I write in response to your article on the “Food Safety Review” in the May issue of grill magazine and am very pleased to be able to assure you that your fears this will be ‘your worst nightmare’ are quite unfounded.

Your article correctly states that NZFSA’s Domestic Food Review advocates Food Control Plans (FCP) as a tool for most food businesses to manage food safety but the article is light on the supporting details so I hope the following will fill in some gaps for you and your readers.

A FCP will consist of a series of templates from which a food proprietor can pick and choose the ones applicable to their purposes. They will be designed to help food proprietors manage food safety at a level appropriate to the particular type of business they are involved in.

Throughout the discussion documents and in the extensive consultation we have undertaken, NZFSA has made it clear that we will be producing a series of ‘off-the-peg’ FCP templates that small business proprietors will be able to access, free of charge. These will be developed in collaboration with representatives of that sector so will be simple to use, practical and designed to make it as easy as possible for proprietors to produce safe food. Larger or more complicated businesses will have the option to develop their own FCP, or modify existing templates.

We intend that FCPs will involve minimal paperwork – in many cases little more than filling in the spaces or ticking boxes. Examples of draft templates are contained in the discussion documents which, although the consultation period is now over, are still available from us or can be viewed on our website: www.nzfsa.govt.nz

We are currently analysing the more than 150 submissions received from the latest round of consultation and expect to put our final recommendations to Government in July. When that is completed we will move into the next phase of implementing the approved recommendations and developing tools for food businesses to use.

New Zealand’s food sector is vital both to New Zealand consumers and our economy. Ensuring we maintain its excellent reputation for producing safe product and positioning it for the future is the purpose of our review.

We hope this clarifies our intentions a bit more for you and your readers. We’d encourage you to keep an eye on our website for the latest developments and welcome your contribution to keeping your readers informed of the ongoing discussion and outcomes.

Sandra Daly
Director (Communications & Infrastructure)