New Zealand Food Safety has been working with industry to make it easier for food businesses to comply with their food safety obligations.
These new tools were publicly launched in Nelson at NIMIT on Friday 19 June 2019 by the Hon Damien O'Connor, Minister for Food Safety and Bryan Wilson, Deputy Director General for Food Safety.
It was noted by both the Minister and Deputy Director General, that the cost of compliance can be very high for small businesses. Although the food safety standards themselves cannot be reduced, the compliance costs to businesses can be reduced by improving processes.
Remote Verification
The Hon Damien O'Connor set the challenge for remote verification. Many food businesses in his constituency are remote. This makes the verification processes more expensive compared to food businesses operating in larger centres where verifiers are close at hand.
New Zealand Food Safety is a global leader, introducing remote verification for food safety. Very few if any food regulators offer this option. Remote Verification allows audits to be conducted using skype and smart phones over a good broadband connection. Most people and businesses have access to these tools.
Remote verification is currently only available to lower risk food businesses operating under National Programmes. Physical on-site audits will still be required but less frequently. Although the audits may take a little longer – there can be significant overall savings by reducing the costs of travel and accommodation associated with getting the auditor to and from the food business.
Remote verification will take additional auditing skills, as senses such as touch & smell are not available to them. Verifiers will need to specifically register as remote verifiers.
My Food Rules
A couple of weeks ago, I discovered “my food rules” which is a tool that has superseded “where do I fit”. At the time I realised what a big improvement this was. It is quite broad and includes businesses that may not operate under the Food Act 2014 including those needing to operate under the Animal Products Act and the Wine Act. Where appropriate, it produces a template programme, and relevant guidance. For example, if it determines that you need a custom food control plan, the generic pre-evaluated programme elements will be provided, and it will advise sections that need to be developed that are specific to your business. Existing templates have been incorporated into this updated tool.
New Zealand Food Safety will continue to develop this tool, as new pre-evaluated templates are developed, to cater for more businesses.
If you want more detail on either of these tools, there is good detail in the MPI website. Search using the following terms:
MPI My Food Rules
MPI Remote Verification
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