Australia reviews food safety management standards

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 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.

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

As part of the review, FSANZ will consider:

• Requirements for food safety management in the foodservice 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 has prepared two proposals to address this work: P1053 Food Safety Management Tools and P1052 Primary Production and Processing Requirements for High-risk Horticulture.