Group urges review of body that developed produce standard

An industry group has called for a review of a body that is responsible for developing food policy in Australia.

Jolyon Burnett, chair of the NFF Horticulture Council, has written to Commonwealth, State and Territory members of the Food Ministers’ Meeting, asking them to launch an independent review into the development and implementation of new food standards that apply to fresh berries, leafy vegetables, and melons as well as the Food Ministers’ Meeting platform.

The Horticulture Council includes 19 national commodity and state-based horticulture bodies and is a member of the National Farmers Federation (NFF).

Primary production and processing standards, created by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and applied by food regulatory agencies in each state and territory, are meant to strengthen food safety and traceability in the supply chain. The standards aim to improve food safety management on-farm and during initial processing to reduce the risks. 

“This has had a stink to it from the very start, when the predecessor body to the Food Ministers’ Meeting kicked off this process without having first consulted industry, expressly counter to their own terms of reference,” said Burnett.

“Now, despite a commitment to creating nationally harmonized regulation, we have several states and territories not just departing from the model they’ve been handed but creating additional red tape, not for the purpose of improving food safety, but lining their own coffers. And at the center sits the Food Ministers’ Meeting, charged with consulting closely with industry, arbitrating between the interests of several food safety stakeholders, and managing their own conflicts as both the creators and enforcers of food regulation.”

Review of produce standard and agency
Members of the Food Ministers’ Meeting include officials responsible for health and food safety in the governments of Australia and New Zealand plus the eight Australian state and territory governments. The latest meeting was on Feb. 14.

Burnett said the agency was failing to meet its essential duties.

“We are calling for an immediate and thorough independent review of its performance and its fitness as a governing body generally, with its role in developing and implementing new food standards for fresh berries, leafy vegetables and melons as a specific focus,” he said.

“Most states and territories haven’t got the necessary legislation in place to put these standards into effect from (Feb. 12), despite having two and half years to prepare, and so we’re also calling for a 12-month extension where this is the case. Consumers should not be concerned about the safety of their food but about its increasing cost.”

Burnett added that states and territories are adding to the burden, which means additional headaches for growers and more expensive food during a cost-of-living crisis.

“We are also calling on each jurisdiction to align their implementation with the FSANZ standard, including providing for mutual recognition where growers are certified against existing voluntary food standards meeting global benchmarks.”

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