The Food Act 2014 takes a common-sense approach to food safety. Everyone working in the food industry has a responsibility to make sure that the food we buy is safe and suitable to eat.
Safe and Suitable food is defined in the Act, it means that:
“Safe food” – won’t make people sick
“Suitable food” meets compositional, labelling and identification requirements and is in the right condition for its intended use.
A central feature of the Act is a sliding scale where businesses that are higher risk, from a food safety point of view, will operate under more stringent food safety requirements and checks than lower-risk food businesses. This means that a corner dairy operator who reheats meat pies won’t be treated in the same way as the meat pie manufacturer.
The Act promotes food safety by focusing on the processes for food production, not the premises where food is made. For example, someone who makes and sells food from a food truck must follow the same rules as someone who makes and sells food at a restaurant.
The Act has two risk based measures:
- Food Control Plans (FCP’s): written plans for managing food safety on a day-to-day basis. These are used by higher-risk businesses.
- National Programmes: A set of food safety rules for medium and low-risk businesses. If you’re under a national programme you must register, meet food safety standards, keep some records and get checked.
New Zealand Food Safety has developed a tool – ‘My food rules’ – to help you work out the food safety rules that apply to your business or food activity. By answering a series of questions, you can find out if you need to register your business, who with (and which legislation) and how to do it.
A tool to find out the food safety rules that apply to your business | NZ Government
