Food News 6 October 2022

Risk of Hepatitis A from frozen berries

Hepatitis A Virus is a known hazard of frozen berries. Imported frozen berries are of increased regulatory interest under the Food Notice: Importing Food.

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) issued a media release and privileged statement on its website on 14 September to provide advice regarding the use and consumption of frozen berries. NZFS became aware of cases of Hepatitis A and an investigation into the source of the illness continues.

A consumer level recall was published on the NZFS website on 4 October as a precaution because of a possible link to these recent cases of Hepatitis A and is supported by a media release.  Existing advice to heat treat all frozen berries remains.

Importers and users of frozen berries have been advised to consider the risk of Hepatitis A and ensure due diligence when sourcing frozen berries.

Territorial Authorities and Verifiers please note that when you are verifying businesses who import and/or use frozen berries that they are aware of the increased risk of Hepatitis A as a hazard and have taken appropriate measures to ensure they are supplying or producing safe and suitable food.

More information on Hepatitis A can be found here Hepatitis A Virus Fact Sheet

Illegal sale of Fijian mussels

New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) has received multiple reports of the importation and sale of Fijian mussels. Mussels come under Bivalve molluscan shellfish (BMS) which is categorised as a High Regulatory Interest food. BMS are monitored at the border due to food safety risks. As outlined in the Food Notice: Importing Food (page 12 ‘All other BMS and products containing BMS’) Fijian mussels are not allowed to be imported into New Zealand for sale.

Due to the risk to public health, NZFS has issued a Chief Executive Statement under section 289 the Food Act 2014 and a media release. Translated information is available in Fijian and Fijian Hindu at the end of the media release.

Mussels from Fiji may also be known as; Nakai, Naakai, Nakaai, Kai, Batiasa violacea and, Fresh Water Mussels. These are coming in deshelled and frozen.

Some importers are illegally declaring the mussels for personal use. Other sellers are reportedly illegally purchasing from travellers returning from Fiji with the mussels in their checked luggage. Others are reportedly importing other seafood products and smuggling the Fiji mussels in the consignments. If you receive information on importers of Fiji mussels, please pass on the information to Food Compliance at NZFS for further investigation.

For Territorial Authorities and Verifiers who find Fijian mussels during a verification:

Provide education to the food business on the use of registered suppliers.
Consider whether a critical non-compliance topic outcome is to be applied and referred to the registration authority.

Can hospitality businesses label their food as “gluten free” or “gluten friendly”?

Claims about gluten are captured as nutrition content claims under Standard 1.2.7 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code). Subsection 1.2.7-12(7) states that the only claims that can be made regarding gluten are “free” or “low” (or a synonym of these descriptors), or “high”. “Gluten friendly” is not a permitted claim.

The conditions to make a gluten free claim are provided in Schedule 4 of the code. There must be no cross contact with gluten or ingredients containing gluten during the storage, handling, preparation, cooking and serving of food to make this claim.

Best practice food allergen resources have traditionally been provided by industry. Many of these resources and key messages can be found in the Allergen Portal on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand website.

Tour Operator Guidance

New Zealand Food Safety will shortly be sharing a new guidance document for tour operators about their responsibilities in relation to the Food Act 2014.

As we enter the spring and summer months and see the return of overseas tourists to New Zealand it is important for tour operators to understand the food rules that apply to them.

The guidance will help tour operators identify whether they need to register as a food business with their local council and meet food safety and suitability rules when providing food to paying guests.

New Rules for electrolyte drinks

In August 2022 the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) was amended to introduce new rules for the composition and labelling of electrolyte drinks which may require labelling changes. Some drinks containing electrolytes with lower carbohydrate contents may now meet the definition of an electrolyte drink.

Details of the changes can be found in Standard 2.6.2 of the Code (Division 4 Electrolyte drinks and electrolyte drink bases).

Businesses have until 12 August 2024 to comply with these changes. After this date all electrolyte drinks in the marketplace must comply with the new rules.

If you have any questions please email foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz.

Close-out dates for approvals’ applications

For the Christmas/New Year period, most Ministry for Primary Industries’ sites will be closed from mid-afternoon on Friday 23 December 2022 and will reopen on 4 January 2023. There will be minimal staff available on 23 December 2022 and from 4 - 6 January 2023.

If New Zealand Food Safety receives completed Animal Products Act 1999, Food Act 2014 or Wine Act 2003 applications by Friday 18 November 2022, the Approvals team will aim to process these before Christmas. If further information is needed, applications are unlikely to be approved. Any applications received after 18 November may not be approved until the New Year.

Approvals’ emails will not be monitored from mid-afternoon on 23 December 2022 - 4 January 2023. We will advise contact details for anything urgent during the close-down period.

Organics project update

Regulation’s update

In 2021 the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) publicly consulted on proposals for regulating organic food, beverages, and plant and animal products. A summary of the submissions we received throughout the consultation period is now available on the organic legislation page of the MPI website. The policy team will be re-engaging with the sector on the regulations over the coming months. Following this, details of this engagement will be released.

National Organic Standard

The Organics project team have recently completed five in-person workshops throughout August and September 2022 with the organics sector to develop the new National Organic Standard. This week we have started a series of virtual workshops and drop-in sessions as part of the development process, if you would like to participate please contact OrganicsConsultation@mpi.govt.nz

Agency contact updates in My Food Rules

Thank you to the verification agencies that responded to the email request sent on 11 July 2022 to update your contact information. These changes have been made to the verifier list on the My Food Rules online tool.

BUILDING CAPABILITIES

Food Act Verifiers CPD programme update and notification of Academy offline period

As Food Act Verifiers will be aware, the new Continuing Professional Development (CPD) year (2022 - 2023) started on 1 October 2022.

We are making a few changes to the resources for the new year. These will be available in the Academy by close of business on 11 October 2022.

In order to post these changes some CPD pages will be offline from 6 October - 10 October 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact continuingprofessionaldev@mpi.govt.nz

HAVE YOUR SAY

Translations

New Zealand Food Safety would like to understand which languages we should consider translating our requirements and guidance into. Specifically, we would like to know which languages you would like the Simply Safe & Suitable Template Food Control Plan and Plain English Allergen Labelling guidance translated to.

Please email foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz with your suggestions and a justification as to which languages would be most beneficial.

Food Act Template Review Project

New Zealand Food Safety have been reviewing our food control plans and programmes. Thank you to all of you who have provided your time and feedback.

We are now preparing for public consultation of the template food control plans from October - November 2022.

We have two questions that we are seeking feedback on:

1. How many food businesses are using the Section 39-00001 food control plan?

2. How we can best implement the revised plans and programmes? How would Councils/verifiers like to be involved in rolling out the new plans and programmes? How best can we reach all users?

Please email foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz with your feedback.

Previous updates can be found in Food News November 2021, December 2021 and September 2022.