New Sprout Standard

The following is from a media release from Food Standards Australia new Zealand and is include here with permission.

A new primary production and processing standard for seed sprouts has been approved by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Board.

FSANZ Chief Executive Officer, Steve McCutcheon, said the states and territories would enforce the standard, which has an 18-month implementation period.

“FSANZ has worked with the seed sprouts industry, governments and consumers to develop this standard,” Mr McCutcheon said.

“In recent years, outbreaks of food-borne illness both in Australia and overseas have been associated with eating seed sprouts and the cost to the Australian community from outbreaks in 2005 and 2006 has been estimated at $2.1 million .

“The objective of this standard is to reduce the incidence of food-borne illness associated with seed sprouts by introducing food regulatory measures for sprouts processors.”

Measures in the standard include requirements for producers to identify potential hazards and implement control measures to address those hazards. Sprout producers must also have evidence to show that control measures have been implemented.

Mr McCutcheon said the approval had been notified to the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council . Once FSANZ has notified the council, the council has 60 days to either ask FSANZ to review the application or inform FSANZ that it does not intend to request a review.

The FSANZ notification circular also contains details on a number of other approvals and a call for submissions on an application to include a new processing aid in the Food Standards Code.

The application is seeking permission to approve the use of 1,3-dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DBDMH) as an antimicrobial processing aid to be added to water for treating all foods, though it is primarily proposed to treat poultry and meat carcasses and other animal parts. Further information can be found at the links below.

The period for submissions closes 6pm (Canberra time) 22 December 2011: