NZ FOOD SAFETY

Thank you to all those who keep New Zealand food safe

NZIFST Conference keynote presentation

Presented by Vincent Arbuckle, Deputy Director General, NZ Food Safety

NZ Food Safety’s Deputy Director General, Vincent Arbuckle began his keynote speech to NZIFST’s 2022 conference in July with a thank you to all those who carry out food safety work in New Zealand. Having just passed his own milestone of one year in the job of leading MPI’s Food Safety capabilities and future direction, he presented a thorough set of insights as contained in these excerpts from his speech.

Aotearoa New Zealand has a truly world-class food safety system that each of us play a part in and can be proud of. Nevertheless we need to remember it is not a static system and never has been. The environment in which we operate and produce our food is constantly changing, so in order to retain the competitive position that we currently and rightly enjoy internationally we must evolve in return.

Is food safety in New Zealand good enough?

The question at top of my mind for me as I’ve been setting priorities and reviewing specific areas is this. Is food safety in New Zealand good enough – be that from an outcome perspective, understanding the trends across major foodborne illnesses, the design and funding of the food safety system or viewing the system from a public health perspective and public communication? Another point that speaks volumes about food and the uniqueness of Aotearoa New Zealand is to give due prominence to Māori culture and the Treaty – Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The question that this presents for all of us is about the extent to which the New Zealand food safety system, and our food story to domestic consumers and the world, can be more grounded in our indigenous culture, traditional knowledge and values.

At NZ Food Safety we have established a Director Te Ao Māori Partnerships to lead our internal and external journey on this mahi. It’s only been going for a year and I acknowledge that we’re still in our infancy of ensuring our competence and progress in this important area.

The effectiveness of our food safety system

From an outcome perspective, I have every confidence in the effectiveness of our food safety system in protecting consumers from major incidents and therefore the significant risks associated with food production, processing, sale and consumption. However, past performance isn’t necessarily a guarantee of future performance. Something I’ve learned from working in other challenging sectors like Corrections and the emergency services is that the relative absence of reported adverse events in the past is no guarantee that the preconditions for a disaster don’t exist and are simply waiting for the holes in the Swiss cheese to line up. In the food sector the public and market “outrage” factor is real. You can be sure that few of those directly involved, as well as the regulator, would survive unchanged by the public “outrage” and export market reaction of even a handful of deaths arising from a major food safety incident. Contemplating such an event should keep us all awake from time to time. One of the signal areas of foodborne illness I have looked at carefully is campylobacter rates, where I noted the progress achieved to reduce human cases of campylobacteriosis by 10%, from 88.4 to 79.6 per 100,000 population by the end of 2020. Furthermore MPI’s Annual Report concerning Foodborne Diseases in New Zealand, 2020, identified that the target was achieved and that NZ Food Safety’s Deputy Director General Vincent Arbuckle spoke at the NZIFST Conference

NZFS had introduced a commendable new stretch target of a further reduction of 20% by the end of 2024. While this represents solid progress, the rates remain high, with an estimated 75.4% of foodborne transmission of campylobacter via poultry: a situation that the poultry industry and we have been saying isn’t yet good enough. Accordingly, in addition to our existing strategy, we are lifting the governance of the campylobacter programme, establishing more dedicated project resources, extending the science and seeking intermediate measures of success.

The design of our food safety system

We are fortunate to have a world class food safety system with strong regulatory and industry investment in food safety, particularly across our major export foods. Overall our system is soundly designed and, for the most part, works well with a heavy reliance on the good conduct and expertise of industry, verifiers and the regulators, particularly the territorial authorities. I believe there is a need, however, to strengthen the domestic and imported food systems and to deliver on the full intent of the Food Act. This loomed larger for me when I joined our Food Compliance staff recently on an unannounced inspection of a smaller food producer who was under a notice of direction. That visit confirmed for me that there a sad reality that there are producers who would knowingly game the system, falsify records and do as little to maintain food safety standards as they could get away with. I have also learnt from focusing on lessons from outbreaks and events that arose over the last twelve months, both domestically – such as New Zealand’s first ever detection of Salmonella enteritidis (SE) in the poultry industry – and internationally. [See page 32 for a report on the outbreak. Ed] In the case of detecting SE in the poultry industry we have put an emergency regulatory control scheme in place to manage the risk and are advancing a permanent scheme. The SE outbreak was successfully managed in the end and has led to major changes in the industry and NZFS, but it was hard work. To address this, we are investing in a Response and Readiness capability more tailored for NZFS, including appointing a director with a strong background in emergency management and the health sector.

Taking a public health perspective

Another important focus for me has been to consider the food safety system from a public health perspective. In a narrow definition of safe and suitable, the food safety system is certainly good enough. But when obesity rates in New Zealand continue to climb, now ranking amongst the highest in the world, can our food truly be said to be suitable when one in five deaths in New Zealand are estimated as diet related? The public health burden does not fall evenly. Māori and Pacifica communities carry a far greater burden and are significantly more likely to be trapped in a cycle of cheap, poor quality and ultimately unhealthy foods through poverty and an inability to readily access more healthy foods. No doubt, current food price inflation is only exacerbating this tread. Industry, public health agencies and the food regulatory system must continue to focus on this area if our food can really be considered suitable in a wider sense for New Zealanders now and into the future.

Looking for constant improvements

Please know that on my watch NZ Food Safety will be taking every opportunity to communicate food safety messages to the public and key communities. Much of this does not sit with NZ Food Safety exclusively, as industry should have insight into how their products are being used, understand consumer behaviour and take responsibility for the immediate and long-term effects of their products on the health and wellbeing of consumers. For our part we are working towards more structured and regular ways to understand the practices, knowledge or concerns of consumers in food safety that may have a constraining effect on our public communications. We have started through establishing a communications calendar that uses a combination of media (social and mainstream) and marketing to maximise priority food safety message each month. We’re planning an annual consumer survey and are intending to broaden our material and channels so we can engage more effectively with at-risk communities. On other fronts we have moved our Food Compliance staff to report directly to New Zealand Food Safety. We’ve refreshed our Recall Guidance, resourced ourselves to practise simulated incidents with industry, and new regulations will soon require all food producers to run an annual recall practise.

Conclusion

I trust that my presentation has stimulated some thinking, offered you an insight into what keeps me awake at night and provided you with a sense of where New Zealand Food Safety is currently putting its efforts. In closing, thank you again for what you do for the Food Safety system in New Zealand and for our 5 million domestic consumers and the millions of global consumers who trust and believe in the New Zealand food story. You should be very proud of the Food Safety system in New Zealand, and the especially vital role that you’ve played in it over the past two and a half years and continue to play.