This article needs to be updated.(September 2021) |
Food Act 2014 | |
---|---|
New Zealand Parliament | |
Assented to | 6 June 2014 |
Administered by | Ministry for Primary Industries |
Legislative history | |
Bill title | Food Bill 160-2 |
Repeals | |
Food Act 1981 | |
Status: Current legislation |
The Food Act is a New Zealand Act of Parliament passed in 2014. It came into force on 1 March 2016 and progressively replaced the Food Act 1981 for the next three years. [1]
It was introduced as the Food Bill 160-2 on 26 May 2010 to make some fundamental changes [2] to New Zealand's domestic food regulatory regime. Significantly, for an export led economic recovery for New Zealand, the domestic food regulatory regime is the platform for exports. [3] The New Zealand domestic standard is used as the basis for negotiating equivalence arrangements with trading partners. This minimizes the excessive importing country requirements that may be imposed but which do not go to food safety. If passed into law and fully implemented, it would replace the Food Act 1981 and the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974. Food Bill will also make consequential amendments to the Animal Products Act 1999 and the Wine Act 2003 to improve the interface of regulatory processes across food sectors.
New Zealand is one of 165 member nations of Codex Alimentarius. Other codex member nations are also passing or are proposing to pass similar legislative changes:
The NZFSA (now part of MAF) commenced consultation on the Domestic Food Review in 2004 with a series of public discussion papers. The outcome of the Review was the proposals for the Food Bill. The public were actively consulted with from 2007 to 2010 on the Domestic Food Review and the Food Bill. This consultation has included forums and consumer groups, discussion papers and public submission processes. The publications and information on the Food Bill have been available throughout this process on the NZFSA website and were used to support consultation. During the public consultation on the Food Bill by the Primary Production Committee from 22 July to 2 September 2010, 66 submissions were received. These can be viewed on the Parliamentary website (see the link at the end of Q4).
Public enquiries by phone and email up until 2010 numbered 1670 and there have been over 70,000 page views for the Domestic Food Review, Food Bill and the Food Control Plan. A Consumers Forum was established in 2002 and met 3-4 times a year until November 2008 the Domestic Food Review and subsequently the Food Bill were regularly an item on their agenda. The Forum's mailing list included 61 consumer organisations and 88 individual representatives. More information on the Consumers Forum is here: Staying in touch with people Archived 10 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Concerns have been raised about a number of different aspects of the proposed Food Bill 160-2. They are broadly categorised as:
Critics say that once Codex standards become law, consumers will have inferior food rules imposed upon them, while food standards and trade will be completely controlled worldwide. Codex may ultimately:
Food irradiation is the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation, such as from gamma rays, x-rays, or electron beams. Food irradiation improves food safety and extends product shelf life (preservation) by effectively destroying organisms responsible for spoilage and foodborne illness, inhibits sprouting or ripening, and is a means of controlling insects and invasive pests.
Prostitution in New Zealand, brothel-keeping, living off the proceeds of someone else's prostitution, and street solicitation are legal in New Zealand and have been since the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 came into effect. Coercion of sex workers is illegal. The 2003 decriminalisation of brothels, escort agencies and soliciting, and the substitution of a minimal regulatory model, created worldwide interest; New Zealand prostitution laws are now some of the most liberal in the world.
Hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP, is a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe and designs measures to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP attempts to avoid hazards rather than attempting to inspect finished products for the effects of those hazards. The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) require mandatory HACCP programs for juice and meat as an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health. Meat HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. All other food companies in the United States that are required to register with the FDA under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, as well as firms outside the US that export food to the US, are transitioning to mandatory hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls (HARPC) plans.
Sunset yellow FCF is a petroleum-derived orange azo dye with a pH-dependent maximum absorption at about 480 nm at pH 1 and 443 nm at pH 13, with a shoulder at 500 nm. When added to foods sold in the United States, it is known as FD&C Yellow 6; when sold in Europe, it is denoted by E Number E110.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a regulatory agency that is dedicated to the safeguarding of food, plants, and animals (FPA) in Canada, thus enhancing the health and well-being of Canada's people, environment and economy. The agency is responsible to the Minister of Health.
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations relating to food, food production, food labeling, and food safety.
The health freedom movement is a libertarian coalition that opposes regulation of health practices and advocates for increased access to "non-traditional" health care.
Standards of identity for food are mandatory requirements that are set by a governing body to determine what a food product must contain to be marketed under a certain name in allowable commerce. Mandatory standards, which differ from voluntary grades and standards applied to agricultural commodities, protect the consumer by ensuring a label accurately reflects what is inside.
Food safety is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a common food is known as a food-borne disease outbreak. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potential health hazards. In this way, food safety often overlaps with food defense to prevent harm to consumers. The tracks within this line of thought are safety between industry and the market and then between the market and the consumer. In considering industry-to-market practices, food safety considerations include the origins of food including the practices relating to food labeling, food hygiene, food additives and pesticide residues, as well as policies on biotechnology and food and guidelines for the management of governmental import and export inspection and certification systems for foods. In considering market-to-consumer practices, the usual thought is that food ought to be safe in the market and the concern is safe delivery and preparation of the food for the consumer. Food safety, nutrition and food security are closely related. Unhealthy food creates a cycle of disease and malnutrition that affects infants and adults as well.
New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS), or Haumaru Kai Aotearoa, is the New Zealand government body responsible for food safety, and is the controlling authority for imports and exports of food and food-related products. In April 2012 it was merged into the Ministry for Primary Industries.
There is a high use of pesticides in New Zealand due predominantly to the large agricultural industry.
The United States is the largest grower of commercial crops that have been genetically engineered in the world, but not without domestic and international opposition.
The Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology, proposed in 1984 by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and finalized in 1986, spells out the basic federal policy for regulating the development and introduction of products derived from biotechnology.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011. The FSMA has given the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new authority to regulate the way foods are grown, harvested and processed. The law grants the FDA a number of new powers, including mandatory recall authority, which the agency had sought for many years. The FSMA requires the FDA to undertake more than a dozen rulemakings and issue at least 10 guidance documents, as well as a host of reports, plans, strategies, standards, notices, and other tasks.
The regulation of genetic engineering varies widely by country. Countries such as the United States, Canada, Lebanon and Egypt use substantial equivalence as the starting point when assessing safety, while many countries such as those in the European Union, Brazil and China authorize GMO cultivation on a case-by-case basis. Many countries allow the import of GM food with authorization, but either do not allow its cultivation or have provisions for cultivation, but no GM products are yet produced. Most countries that do not allow for GMO cultivation do permit research. Most (85%) of the world's GMO crops are grown in the Americas. One of the key issues concerning regulators is whether GM products should be labeled. Labeling of GMO products in the marketplace is required in 64 countries. Labeling can be mandatory up to a threshold GM content level or voluntary. A study investigating voluntary labeling in South Africa found that 31% of products labeled as GMO-free had a GM content above 1.0%. In Canada and the US labeling of GM food is voluntary, while in Europe all food or feed which contains greater than 0.9% of approved GMOs must be labelled.
Food safety in New Zealand is a concern by the general public and the government takes measures to regulate it. The estimated cost to the country in 2009 of the six foodborne illnesses campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, norovirus, yersiniosis, STEC and listeriosis was NZ$161 million.
WorkSafe is New Zealand's primary workplace health and safety regulator.
Genetic engineering in North America is any genetic engineering activities in North America
This article discusses topics relating to genetic engineering within Oceania. Currently New Zealand and Australia require labeling so consumers can exercise choice between foods that have genetically modified, conventional, or organic origins.