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24 January 2018

Using Where Do I Fit for best results

When you're helping food businesses with registration, using the Where Do I Fit tool  is a good way to make sure they go down the right pathway, and access the right tools and guidance.

As mentioned in the last Food News, the tool has now been expanded to:

• Provide customisable guidance packs for National Programme Customers
• Let Food Control Plan (FCP) customers know if they need a ‘Custom’ or ‘Template’ plan
• Provide Template FCP customers a direct link to the Simply Safe and Suitable template tool
• Provide a shortened Scope of Operation form based on the customers RBM type

These enhancements should provide a better experience for customers, and hopefully make things easier for the registration authorities. If all goes to plan - they will result in more accurate and complete registration applications. 

We're keen to hear if these improvements are making a difference for you, and get your feedback (be it good, bad, or indifferent).

 

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to 2018 and another busy year in Food Act implementation.

We know you'll be busy registering food businesses in time for 31 March, arranging verifications and dealing with operational issues. 

On our side we're planning a year wth more innovations and improvements so we can make the Food Act work better for you and food businesses around the country. Some of the initiatives coming up include further improvements to the customer registration process, a remote verification trial and more resources to help food businesses with food safety practice.

As you'll read in this issue, we've just launched the Food Verifiers Academy. We hope that verifiers will check it out and start using and contributing. More resources and information will be added in 2018.

We really appreciate the work you do and we're always interested in your feedback and suggestions.

 

 

Food Verifiers' Academy ready and waiting

We're delighted to advise that the Food Verifiers Academy will be live on MPI's online learning management system - Tiritiri - on Friday afternoon (26 Jan), after 3pm.

It features an array of practical tools such as a case study library, a capability framework, podcasts, videos and pre-recorded webinars for verifiers.

We encourage you to start exploring, especially within the Capability framework. The framework describes areas of capability, skills, knowledge and indicators of proficient practice that professional verifiers should exhibit. 

It will be a useful tool for managers looking to recruit or assess verifier performance or plan for learning and development. For individual verifiers it provides a guide for performance targets and a tool through which to identify your development needs.

The first release of the Academy focuses on resources for people new to verification. In the near future we'll expand the hub to include resources for more experienced verifiers.

We'd also like you to contribute your experience and expertise  to the Academy to begin building a collaborative professional community where knowledge and know-how is shared. Suggestions for resource development are encouraged. Please contact us at:   VerifierAcademy@mpi.govt.nz

Verifiers and managers who already have a Tiritiri login can use that to reach the Academy via the Tiritiri Home Page.. For those new to Tititiri you will need to register for Tiritiri first.

IMPORTANT information

MAPS user list clean up

To keep within our approved and budgeted user licence numbers, we need to de-activate users who have not logged in to MAPS for the last 12 months, as a regular clean up process.

This allows us to free up licenses for new users needing to access MAPS.

If you are de-activated but still need to access MAPS, you can be re-activated by contacting MAPS.Support@mpi.govt.nz.

If you have any questions about this exercise, contact your local government liaison team member, or, for MAPS specific questions, contact MAPS.Support@mpi.govt.nz

Exporting mānuka honey under the Food Act

When you are verifying honey processors working under a national programme you may come across a business who is processing mānuka honey for export.

It is possible to process the honey for export under the Food Act 2014 but it's important that the processor meets the standards of the General Export Requirements for Bee Products (GREX). The new GREX rules apply only to exports and take effect on 5 February 2018.

It's also important they are only processing export honey for countries that don't require an official assurance. (To export to a country where official assurances are required a business must be operating under an RMP registered under the Animal Products Act.)

If the business is actually doing the exporting they need to be registered exporters under the Animal Products Act (APA) irrespective of whether the honey is processed under the Food or Animal Products Act.

All honey labelled as mānuka for export must also be tested by an MPI-recognised laboratory to make sure it meets the new mānuka honey definition.

Read more about the new definition, the new exporting rules and how industry need to comply

MPI has produced A guide to New Zealand honey labelling for honey sold in New Zealand.

 

Know someone that's not getting Food News?

This newsletter is aimed at councils, verifiers and food safety officers working under the Food Act. If you have staff in these roles, please make sure everyone is getting it. Although we will communicate in other ways as well, Food News is the official source of information about the system!

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