Food safety Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from t ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

is a concern by the general public and the government takes measures to regulate it. The estimated cost to the country in 2009 of the six

foodborne illness Foodborne illness (also foodborne disease and food poisoning) is any illness resulting from the spoilage of contaminated food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as prions (the agents of mad cow disease) ...

es campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, norovirus, yersiniosis, STEC and listeriosis was

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New ...

161 million. The government launched an annual Foodsafe Week in 2007 to highlight food safety issues.

Policy

The

Food Act 2014 The Food Act is a New Zealand Act of Parliament passed in 2014. It came into force in 1 March 2016 and progressively replaced the Food Act 1981 for the next three years. It was introduced as the Food Bill 160-2 on 26 May 2010 to make some fund ...

, the primary legislation for governing food safety in New Zealand, is administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries, an amalgamation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the

New Zealand Food Safety Authority __NOTOC__ New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS), or Haumaru Kai Aotearoa, is the New Zealand government body responsible for food safety, and is the controlling authority for imports and exports of food and food-related products. In April 2012 it was mer ...

(now all defunct). This act superseded the

Food Act 1981 The Food Act 1981 was an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. It is administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries (New Zealand), Ministry for Primary Industries. The Food Act 2014 replaced the Food Act progressively over three years from wh ...

and made some fundamental changes to New Zealand's domestic food-regulatory regime. The new act was primarily designed to drive an export-led economic recovery for New Zealand, because the domestic food-regulatory regime is the platform for exports. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) develops food standards after consulting with other government agencies and stakeholders. Dr

Ayesha Verrall Ayesha Jennifer Verrall (; born 1979) is a New Zealand politician, infectious-diseases physician, and researcher with expertise in tuberculosis and international health. She is a Labour Party Member of the New Zealand Parliament and a Cabin ...

became the Minister of Food Safety in November 2020, succeeding

Damien O'Connor Damien Peter O'Connor (born 16 January 1958) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician who currently serves as Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Biosecurity, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Minister for Land Information and Minister ...

Incidents

Major food safety incidents are rare but New Zealand was implicated in the 2008 Chinese milk scandal.

Fonterra Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a New Zealand multinational publicly traded dairy co-operative owned by around 9,000 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exce ...

, New Zealand's largest dairy company, had a 43% stake in one of the affected companies. In another recent incident Fonterra found traces of DCD ( 2-Cyanoguanidine) in milk supplies. The levels were very low and attempts were made to prevent the test results from being reported in the media.

Genetic engineering

The safety of

genetically modified food Genetically modified foods (GM foods), also known as genetically engineered foods (GE foods), or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. Gene ...

s and ingredients has often been questioned, particularly since the wide-scale discussion and protests in the early 2000s.

Pesticide residue

Pesticide residues are generally low and are thought to pose no detectable threat to health. The

Soil & Health Association of New Zealand Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, established in 1941, is an organisation that promotes organic food and farming in New Zealand. The organisation publishes the ''Organic NZ'' magazine. See also * Organic farming in New Zealand *Agricult ...

and the Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa New Zealand claim that the 2010 results for pesticide residue are the worst ever.

References

External links

*Ministry for Primary Industries
Food safety portal
- for industry
Food smart portal
- for consumers
Food
at the Ministry of Health
Food safety portfolio news
at The Beehive
Food safety
- a briefing for government ministers (2000)
Food Standards Australia New ZealandFood safety
at the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation {{Oceania topic, Food safety in