Food Safety Standards under review – have your say.

The Food Safety Standards – the national rules for food safety in Australia – are under review. This impacts on every food business in the country and all are encouraged to have their say.

The following is from the Food Standards Australia new Zealand website, www.foodstandards.gov.au, and is included here with permission.

Overall, Australia has a strong food safety management system in place which ensures a safe food supply. Despite this, foodborne illness continues to be a problem.

In April 2017, the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (the Forum) agreed the food regulation system is producing strong food safety outcomes overall, and identified three priority areas for 2017–2021 to further strengthen the system. One of these priorities is to reduce foodborne illness, particularly related to Campylobacter and Salmonella, with a nationally-consistent approach.

FSANZ is reviewing chapters 3 and 4 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) to ensure a consistent and current approach to through-chain food safety management in Australia.

As part of the review, FSANZ will consider:

• requirements for food safety management in the food service sector and closely related retails sector
• potential development of a primary production and processing (PPP) standard for high-risk horticulture products to introduce requirements to manage food safety on-farm, including requirements for traceability
• new technologies that have developed since the original standards were developed

FSANZ is expecting to prepare a number of proposals to address this work commencing mid-2019. This paper provides an opportunity for stakeholders to provide general comment on the proposed scope and approach to the review. An opportunity to provide feedback on specific issues related to each area of work will occur during the proposal processes.

Download: Information Paper (pdf 802kb) | (word 97kb)

Comments on the paper can be made by in writing to submissions@foodstandards.gov.au, or to

Food Standards Australia New Zealand
PO Box 5423
KINGSTON  ACT  2604
AUSTRALIA

Tel +61 2 6271 2222

Deadline for comments is: 31 May 2019