Will there be a Horticultural Products Standard now?

Some time ago, I was fortunate to be involved in the development of the Egg and Egg Products Standard in Chapter 4 of the Food Standards Code.

Developing a mandatory standard like that is time consuming and involves many meetings and discussions.

There are currently six standards in the Primary Production Standards; Meat, Seafood, Poultry meat, Dairy products,Seed sprouts, and, of course, Eggs and egg products.

The notable standard absence is Horticultural products.

There has been much discussion and debate about the development of a Horticultural products standard in the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code and it has been going on for many years.

The recent Salmonella and Rockmelon event and recall has once again raised the issue. As did the Hepatitis scare a few years ago.

One of the problems in the development of such a standard has been imported produce.

In time, we will see if  such a mandatory standard will be developed, although there are currently voluntary industry based self regulation requirements in place.