What was proposed?
The Bakery Industry Association of New Zealand (BIANZ) requested approval of its Food Control Plan under section 40 of the Food Act 2014. The BIANZ Plan was modelled off the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI's) Simply Safe and Suitable Template Food Control Plan (issued March 2017). The BIANZ Plan is tailored specifically for BIANZ members.
MPI evaluated BIANZ’s Plan to ensure it met the requirements of the Food Act 2014 and allows operators to prepare and serve safe and suitable food.
The consultation ran from 13 March 2018 until 27 March 2018.
Making your submission
Submissions closed at 5pm on 27 March 2018.
Background to consultation
The Food Act 2014, which came into effect in March 2016, introduced a risk-based approach to managing food safety. Food control plans are written plans that identify food safety risks and set out how they will be managed on a day-to-day basis.
The Food Act 2014 requires that food business operators take responsibility for ensuring food is safe and suitable. Businesses need to be aware of the risks and be able to show how they are managing these. Section 40 of the Food Act 2014 allows MPI’s chief executive to approve a template or model food control plan which has been developed outside of MPI.
This allows food businesses or industry groups to:
- develop their own food control plan and have it approved so that each business using the plan does not need to submit their plan for individual evaluation, and
- make adjustments to the MPI templates to include multi-site or multi-business specific procedures or practices, or to reflect common language/terminology used in the business and have those changes approved.
Submissions are public information
Any submission you make becomes public information. Anyone can ask for copies of all submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA states we must make the information available unless we have a good reason for withholding it. You can find those grounds in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA. Tell us if you think there are grounds to withhold specific information in your submission. Reasons might include that it's commercially sensitive or it's personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold information can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may require the information be released.
