FEDERATED FARMERS FOOD SAFETY
SPOKESMAN ANDREW HOGGARD
RETAIL NZ GENERAL MANAGER PUBLIC
AFFAIRS GREG HARFORD
“Retail NZ and the Food and Grocery Council
have asked the Government to create a
specific criminal offence relating to grocery
sabotage. It is essential that New Zealanders
have confidence in the food and grocery
sector, including at a retail level. Indeed, our
export sector and our economy are dependent
on public confidence in food safety being
maintained. The recent needle issues, and
the baby formula threats a few years ago,
demonstrate how vulnerable our food sector
is to criminal activity. While industry is doing
its bit to safeguard security, we believe it
is essential that there is a specific criminal
offence dealing with this issue. The recent
needle incidents have imposed massive costs
on retailers and led to enormous wastage of
food. Sabotaging food is a form of economic
terrorism, and needs to be treated as such.
The Australian Commonwealth Government
has already made it a specific offence to
tamper with food, and has recently moved
to strengthen the penalties associated with
food terrorism. We think that it is important
for New Zealand to follow suit, and to send
a clear message to would-be criminals that
sabotaging our nation’s food supply will not be
tolerated.”
FEDERATED FARMERS FOOD SAFETY
SPOKESMAN ANDREW HOGGARD
NEW ZEALAND FOOD & GROCERY COUNCIL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE KATHERINE RICH
“Increasing the penalties for those who
intentionally contaminate food is being
supported by the New Zealand Food &
Grocery Council. National MP Nathan Guy’s
Private Members Bill to review laws and
penalties relating to malicious tampering
with consumer goods - which includes food,
beverages, pharmaceuticals, natural products
and other non-food consumer goods – has
ongoing support, not just in response to
high-profile tampering cases over the past
few years, but because our members have
believed for some time that the law does not
adequately deal with all aspects of malicious
tampering, and needs to be strengthened. Late
last year, Australia’s prime minister announced
a significant increase in penalties for food
contamination, and we believe New Zealand
should make similar changes. New Zealand’s
economy relies on the export of high-quality
foods, beverages and other consumer goods,
so law-makers need to send strong signals
that contaminating food is a serious crime
that has consequences, not just locally but in
terms of harming New Zealand’s reputation in
global markets. I’m sure the food and grocery
sector hopes that the whole Parliament will
support this bill, should it be drawn, so it can
at least be discussed at select committee
level. It appears to have support already from
a number of significant industry associations,
growers and farmers.”
STRONGER LAW MOOTED FOR 2019
Ways to strengthen food recalls and improve the way New Zealand handles riskbased
plans and programmes will be a focus of New Zealand Food Safety this year.
The organisation spent
half of last year collating
public submissions
and hopes to draft law
changes this year. Head Bryan
Wilson says food safety systems
are very important. “The proposed
regulations have their origins in the
independent Government inquiry
into the Whey Protein Concentrate
Contamination Incident (the WPC
Inquiry) that occurred in 2013,”
he says. “We want to find the
most effective ways to improve
food recalls and risk-based
plans and programmes through
implementing the lessons learned
from the WPC incident. Adopting
these requirements will decrease
the impact of any unsafe food on
consumers and also reduce costs
during a food safety incident.
We also want to avoid placing
unnecessary compliance burdens on
businesses, and we are consulting
to understand what the impacts
of these proposals would be on
businesses,” Wilson says.
18 FEBRUARY 2019