HortNews
	New Food Safety Authority Opens Its Doors

WELLINGTON 2/7/2002 - Agriculture officials yesterday launched the new national Food Safety Authority, saying it would help reduce food-borne illnesses in the long term.

Until today, there have been two separate regimes for food administration.

Food sold domestically and imported foods have been administered by the Ministry of Health while the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has administered foods important in the export trade, such as meat and dairy products.

Minister for Food Safety Annette King today said the new agency, a semi-autonomous body attached to MAF, brought together the expertise from these two ministries.

"The food industry and consumers will benefit from a single agency dealing with food safety. It will provide a strong co-ordinated approach to reducing the incidence of food borne illness and managing food-related risks."

Ms King told reporters there were more than 30,000 businesses selling, manufacturing or processing food and more than 50 percent of New Zealand's export earning came from food or food-related exports.

The food industry would be responsible for producing safe food and would have to prove it was doing the right things. The Government would act as the regulator, setting standards and auditing and enforcing these.

She said the Food Standards Australia New Zealand board (FSANZ), which had replaced the Australian New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA), would continue its work under the new Food Safety Authority. ANZFA had been responsible for introducing food labelling on all products sold in New Zealand and Australia.

Ms King said New Zealand had the most comprehensive food-labelling regime in the world, that included labelling of genetically modified food.

Authority executive director Andrew McKenzie said the new agency had been set up to address concerns over fragmented responsibilities for food safety.

He said policies would be put in place to make sure that consumers, producers, territorial authorities and district health boards were working to the same standards.

Better standards, better ways of measuring performance and a consistent application of standards nationwide would help reduce food-borne illnesses.

The authority could impose ultimately mandatory standards on, for instance the restaurant trade, to ensure food safety was met.

Mr McKenzie said there were two main issues relating to international requirements over food exports that would affect New Zealand exporters - BSE, and food security following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

These had implications for health standards of imports, and "traceability" of foods and protection of exports from fraudulent certification.

Processors would be required to get more information from farmers and other food producers to ensure where food originated from.

Meanwhile, Mr McKenzie said the new authority had taken over the illegal dairy products exporting scandal - commonly known as Powdergate - which until now had been investigated by MAF's offcials. He declined to comment further on the $50.3 million scandal revealed when investigations were launched into deals involving more than 9000 tonnes of milk product from Kiwi Co-operative Dairies allegedly exported illegally.

In September last year, MAF officials began investigating breaches of export rules under the now defunct Dairy Board Act.

They also began investigating labelling requirements under the Dairy Industry Act after allegations some dairy companies circumvented restrictions on dairy exports.

Fonterra's own investigation said the illicit exports of dairy produce to circumvent Dairy Board constraints - and the law - were simply the actions of over-zealous employees.