NZ and US sign ‘momentous’ food safety agreement

New Zealand and the US have signed a Food Safety Systems Recognition Arrangement - a document signifying that each country recognises the other’s food safety systems as providing a comparable degree of food safety assurance. New Zealand is the first country to sign such an agreement with the US.

Delegations from NZ’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed the agreement last week at a meeting in Washington DC.

“This is momentous for MPI as it is the first time the FDA has recognised another country’s food safety system as comparable to its own,” MPI Deputy Director General Standards Carol Barnao said.

“This process has included a comprehensive review of each country’s relevant laws and regulations, inspection programs, response to food-related illness and outbreaks, compliance and enforcement, and laboratory support,” Barnao said.

“In one calendar year, FDA and New Zealand officials spent an intensive period of time together including visiting production plants, cold store facilities, verifiers and accreditation authorities looking at the effectiveness of how each other’s preventative controls and verification systems worked.”

The two countries intend to use the agreement to lessen the potential regulatory burden for foods traded between the countries by removing unnecessary duplication of activities.

The agreement covers all foods and animal feeds regulated by the FDA, equating to $1.5 billion of NZ’s current exports of primary products.

“Systems recognition agreements are very important for MPI to help us achieve one of our key strategic goals of maximising export opportunities through other countries’ recognition of the credibility of our food safety controls,” Barnao said.