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. [1]
The government launched an annual Foodsafe Week in 2007 to highlight food safety issues. [2]
The Food Act 2014, the primary legislation for governing food safety in New Zealand, is administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries, an amalgamation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (now all defunct). This act superseded the Food Act 1981 and made some fundamental changes to New Zealand's domestic food-regulatory regime. The new act was primarily designed[ by whom? ] to drive an export-led economic recovery for New Zealand, because the domestic food-regulatory regime is the platform for exports.[ citation needed ]
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) develops food standards after consulting with other government agencies and stakeholders.
Dr Ayesha Verrall became the Minister of Food Safety in November 2020, succeeding Damien O'Connor.
Major food safety incidents are rare but New Zealand was implicated in the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. Fonterra, New Zealand's largest dairy company, had a 43% stake in one of the affected companies. In another recent incident Fonterra found traces of DCD (2-Cyanoguanidine) in milk supplies. The levels were very low and attempts were made to prevent the test results from being reported in the media. [3]
The safety of genetically modified foods and ingredients has often been questioned, particularly since the wide-scale discussion and protests in the early 2000s.
Pesticide residues are generally low and are thought to pose no detectable threat to health. [4] The Soil & Health Association of New Zealand and the Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand claim that the 2010 results for pesticide residue are the worst ever. [5]
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.
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exceeding NZ $22 billion, making it New Zealand's largest company. It is the sixth-largest dairy company in the world as of 2022, as well as the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
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.
AsureQuality Limited is a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) fully owned by the government of New Zealand. The company's core business is food quality assurance with its services including certification, inspection, testing, and training. AsureQuality has over 1700 staff at over 100 locations throughout New Zealand. AsureQuality also has a joint venture partner, Bureau Veritas.. Bureau Veritas and AsureQuality have two joint ventures, BVAQ Australia and BVAQ SouthEast Asia.
A2 milk is a variety of cows' milk that mostly lacks a form of β-casein proteins called A1, and instead has mostly the A2 form. Cows' milk like this was brought to market by The a2 Milk Company and is sold mostly in Australia, New Zealand, China, and the United States. It was sold in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2019. Non-cow milk, including that of humans, sheep, goats, donkeys, yaks, camels, buffalo, and others, also contain mostly A2 β-casein, and so the term "A2 milk" is also used in that context.
Pesticide residue refers to the pesticides that may remain on or in food, after they are applied to food crops. The maximum allowable levels of these residues in foods are stipulated by regulatory bodies in many countries. Regulations such as pre-harvest intervals also prevent harvest of crop or livestock products if recently treated in order to allow residue concentrations to decrease over time to safe levels before harvest.
A food safety agency or food administration or Food Safety Authority is a government agency responsible for ensuring the safety, quality, and proper labeling of food products within a country or region. These agencies play a crucial role in protecting public health by establishing and enforcing regulations and standards to ensure that food produced, imported, processed, distributed, and sold is safe for consumption.
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.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) is a ministry of the Government of India responsible for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to food processing in India. The ministry was set up in the year 1988, with a view to develop a strong and vibrant food processing industry, to create increased employment in rural sector and enable farmers to reap the benefits of modern technology and to create a surplus for exports and stimulating demand for processed food.
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.
Organic food, ecological food, or biological food are foods and drinks produced by methods complying with the standards of organic farming. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Organizations regulating organic products may restrict the use of certain pesticides and fertilizers in the farming methods used to produce such products. Organic foods are typically not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or synthetic food additives.
There is a high use of pesticides in New Zealand due predominantly to the large agricultural industry.
In New Zealand, agriculture is the largest sector of the tradable economy. The country exported NZ$46.4 billion worth of agricultural products in the 12 months to June 2019, 79.6% of the country's total exported goods. The agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector directly contributed $12.653 billion of the national GDP in the 12 months to September 2020, and employed 143,000 people, 5.9% of New Zealand's workforce, as of the 2018 census.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017. The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio President of the BIS. BIS has 500 plus scientific officers working as Certification Officers, Member secretaries of technical committees and lab OIC's.
Dairy farming in New Zealand began during the early days of colonisation by Europeans. The New Zealand dairy industry is based almost exclusively on cattle, with a population of 4.92 million milking cows in the 2019-20 season. The income from dairy farming is now a major part of the New Zealand economy, becoming an NZ$13.4 billion industry by 2017.
Pesticide residues are of concern in New Zealand and foods are regularly checked to see if they are within set limits.
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.
In 2013, a wide-scale recall of products sold by dairy producer Fonterra was announced after suspected botulism-causing bacteria were found during safety tests. The contaminated whey products had been sold to third parties who use it to produce infant formula and sports drinks. Approximately 1,000 tonnes of consumer product was affected by the recall across seven countries, but no cases of sickened consumers were reported. China, which imports most of its powdered milk from New Zealand, instituted a temporary ban on the import of the ingredient from New Zealand.
Food safety in Australia concerns the production, distribution, preparation, and storage of food in Australia to prevent foodborne illness, also known as food safety. Food Standards Australia New Zealand is responsible for developing food standards for Australia and New Zealand.
The a2 Milk Company Limited is a dual listed NZX and ASX 50 public listed company that commercialises intellectual property relating to A1 protein-free milk that is sold under the a2 and a2 Milk brands, as well as the milk and related products such as infant formula.
