NZFSSRC
The NZ Food Safety Science & Research Centre - what does it save New Zealand? This article has been written exclusively for FoodNZ by the NZ Food Safety Science & Research Centre (NZFSSRC)
Director of the NZFSSRC is experienced senior scientist, Dr Libby Harrison
How do we assess food safety risks? Insurance company actuaries have rich accumulating data on the cost of road accidents, floods, house fires, and healthcare, on which to calculate probabilities and premiums. Food safety risks are trickier to assess. How do you estimate the cost of foodborne disease outbreaks, factory closures and market exclusions that haven’t happened, and may never happen? Can you quantify lost reputations and damage to New Zealand’s brand? Last year, the NZ Food Safety Science & Research Centre (NZFSSRC 26
Food New Zealand
Microbiologist, Distinguished Professor Phil Bremer (University of Otago) is the NZFSSRC Chief Scientist
or ‘the Centre’) asked the Lincoln University Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) to undertake the difficult task of estimating the value to industry and the country of having the New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre available to initiate and manage food safety research and foresee potential food safety risks. To cut to the chase, AERU’s estimate was $164 million per annum. By comparison, the virtual Centre, hosted by Massey University, receives an annual budget of $2.5 million of government funding and is expected to raise half the money (in cash or in-kind) it spends on research from industry beneficiaries.
