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6 April 2020
Verification during the COVID-19 Response
Food verification services are considered essential services to support businesses during COVID-19. New Zealand Food Safety has set up a Remote Check system of Food Act businesses as an interim measure until on-site verifications can resume. As part of this process, we are delivering a series of live webinars via the Food Verifiers Academy to get verifiers up-to-speed with, and able to undertake, these checks.
COVID-19 and Food Safety
We understand many Territorial Authorities are fielding questions from food businesses about COVID-19. As of 26 March, New Zealand is at Alert Level 4. Primary industries (including food and beverage packaging, production and processing) and food verification, are considered essential services.
New Law for Regulating Organic Products
Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee began public consultation on the Organic Products Bill on 23 March. The Bill aims to increase consumer confidence when purchasing organic products, give businesses more certainty in making organic claims, and support international trade in organic products. We encourage you to make your views on the Bill heard.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Conversations with your Co-regulators
After post-survey consultation and further discussion, the Co-regulatory Priorities Panel has agreed on Food Act 2014 priorities and has begun drafting an action plan to address these. The panel may seek to better understand the experience of Territorial Authorities navigating priority areas.
Bakeries Selling Frozen Pies
We've recently had some discussions about a chain of retail bakeries. A question from a Territorial Authority was: if the bakeries are freezing pies (as well as selling these for immediate consumption), do they move out of the scope of the Simply Safe & Suitable (SSS) Template Food Control Plan (FCP) and into ‘Manufacturers of meals and prepared foods’ (requiring a custom FCP)?
NEW PUBLICATIONS
New Practice Notes
We are finalising new Practice Notes to assist Territorial Authorities (TAs) in their Food Act 2014 co-regulation responsibilities. Practice Note 10 addresses processes around voluntary and mandatory suspension of operations for food businesses. Practice Note 11 focuses on cost recovery and some of the areas TAs can consider when setting fees and charges. A big thank you to those TAs who contributed to the creation of this guidance. All Food Act Practice Notes can be found here.
