Update from Vincent Arbuckle, Deputy Director-General, New Zealand Food Safety

Kia ora koutou,

This month, New Zealand Food Safety hosted the 7^th annual International Heads of Food Agencies Forum (IHFAF) in Auckland. This year’s theme was “risk communication,” bringing together representatives from around the world to discuss and share how risks are understood, communicated, and managed across organisations, communities, and jurisdictions. The Forum was attended by delegates from 16 countries, along with observer bodies. It was a privilege to host international counterparts and facilitate this important exchange.

The perspectives we can share at IHFAF are strengthened by the high-quality verification practices that support our risk-based food safety system. Your work enables New Zealand to be part of a partnership that supports other food safety systems to thrive worldwide and ensure that consumers everywhere have access to safe food.

Ngā mihi nui,

Vincent Arbuckle
Deputy Director-General, New Zealand Food Safety

Food packaging rules and guidance webpage

In March, we published the Food packaging rules and guidance webpage. This provides information about food packaging-related requirements, including guidance on choosing packaging that keeps food safe and suitable, aspects to consider if businesses want to research substitutes for their packaging, and other information.

We welcome feedback on this webpage – are there other related aspects of food packaging that you are keen to see here? Please send your feedback to foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz.

Auckland Council v TH89 Limited (trading as Buns & Rolls) & Cuong Viet Le

Auckland Council has successfully pursued charges against a food business, TH89 Limited (trading as Buns & Rolls) and its General Manager, Cuong Viet Le for failing to comply with a direction issued under the Food Act 2014.

The investigation began in 2024 and involved Officers from Hamilton City Council, New Zealand Food Safety and Auckland Council. The business was operating outside of the scope of their Template Food Control Plan by operating a central production kitchen supplying franchisee stores, which needed to be registered under a custom Food Control Plan with MPI. An Auckland Council Food Safety Officer issued a direction to cease the out-of-scope activity; however, further compliance monitoring determined the direction had been breached on multiple occasions.

The final sentences imposed were a $33,000 fine for TH89 Limited, and a $6,000 fine for Mr Le.

Halfway through the 2025-2026 Continuing Professional Development year

We are now halfway through the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) year, which means it’s an ideal time to check in on your timecard progress. 70% of verifiers have started entering details into their timecard, meaning 30% have yet to start. Remember, you must enter activity details within 10 days of completing an activity. If you have details that need to be entered, make sure you log on to the Academy to fill in your timecard.

Good Regulatory Practice module is compulsory learning

The Good Regulatory Practice (GRP) module is compulsory for all verifiers so make sure to complete this before 30 September. You do not have to recomplete the module if you completed it in a previous CPD year.

Work continues on Academy improvements

After the completion of our user survey in January 2026, we are continuing to work on a variety of improvements to the Academy. We have recently created a dropdown menu to improve navigation, changed the updating process to reduce the amount of time pages are offline, and are rolling out a change to prevent buttons opening unnecessary extra tabs. We have more improvements in progress, so watch this space.

Exporter Help: Enabling Food and Fibre Businesses to thrive

Exporter Help delivers personalised advice and develops educational resources to help food and fibre businesses understand the rules and become more confident in sending their products overseas.

The free Exporter Help service is available to businesses of all sizes, no matter where they are in their exporting journey. This means any business can seek support; whether they are looking into the idea of exporting or are already established and need specific requirements clarified. Exporter Help works to provide accurate and up-to-date information, enabling businesses to work efficiently and avoid costly mistakes.

If you are visiting food and fibre businesses that may benefit from the support of our Exporter Help team, please encourage them to get in touch.

Email: exporterhelp@mpi.govt.nz 

Phone: 0800 674 490

Website: Exporter Help

Support for food and fibre exporters during the Middle East conflict in 2026

As the Middle East conflict continues, there has been a great deal of work undertaken across the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Here at New Zealand Food Safety, our teams continue to work closely with industry to provide options and advice and support the redirection of exports where required. We are also closely connected to, and providing input into, the Government’s wider response to the conflict.

For more information about MPI’s support, visit our dedicated webpage: Support for food and fibre exporters during the Middle East conflict in 2026