Food Governance Commentary Dennis Thomas Principal Food Technologist

Food Governance Commentary Dennis Thomas Principal Food Technologist 4 Dec 2009

Key topics to cover • Key trends internationally in food governance • Key challenges or successes in food governance in NZ and Australia right now • What do we need to take into account when we are developing /investing in future food technologies?

Key trends internationally in food governance Typical Governance Objectives: • the protection of public health and safety; and • the provision of adequate information relating to food to enable consumers to make informed choices; and • the prevention of misleading or deceptive conduct. (section 18 of the FSANZ Act)

Key trends internationally in food governance Government: • Increasing separation and independence, of compliance and enforcement, risk management, risk analysis, and policy • Transparency / accountability • Minimum effective regulation • Multi-agency responsibility for various elements of food governance, e. g. environment, chemicals, microbes, GM, food additives, food processing. Multi-Government: • e. g. Codex, work-arounds through bilaterals and multilaterals Private Standards in Addition to Government Requirements: • Ecological and social brands and associated requirements • Private standards, e. g. BRC

Key challenges or successes in food governance in NZ and Australia right now Key challenges: • Food-Medicine interface • When should the regulator intervene? e. g. enabling innovation and competitiveness internationally whilst maintaining safety • Efficiency/speed • Variance of views between stakeholders and within stakeholder groups – e. g. health claims • Balance between prescribed and voluntary labelling

Key challenges or successes in food governance in NZ and Australia right now Key successes: • Good international record for food safety • Good partnerships e. g. for incident management • Use of scientific reviews, e. g. dietary modelling, GM • Primary production standards (Australia; except raw milk) • Target a common approach at international meetings • Whole-of government initiatives for nanotechnology • Ministerial Council • FSANZ still here!

Key challenges or successes in food governance in NZ and Australia right now Implications for governance from trends in social values/consumer preferences globally and in NZ • Demands for labelling and product controls beyond existing norms • Pressure to re-weight FSANZ Act objectives • Increasing divergence between food-as-fuel and food-as-extension of social values

What needs to be taken into account when developing /investing in future food technologies? • • Many regulatory bodies conduct their own assessments – there is no global approval. This means acquiring required data sets efficiently. A food (automatically) permitted in one country may be regarded as needing pre-market approval in another country. Even if the food safety conclusion is the same, different countries may have very different labelling permissions and/or prohibitions. Some major jurisdictions have quite tight definitions of novel foods – including novel processes. Australia/NZ lies approximately in the middle of the range. Identify if pre-processing is caught up in regulatory requirements. Because of social / governance decisions some products may not be allowed even if the science community generally regards them as safe – e. g. GM, cloned animals, non-halal. The food safety regulator may be the least of your worries!

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