Newsletter | Foodwise volume 8 Spring - NSW Food Authority

New Schemes
Plant Products Safety Manual updated
Recently alfalfa sprouts received national
attention after bacterial contamination and
illness resulted in a number of recalls. In
response, the Authority has taken steps
to ensure the safety of seed sprouts
produced in NSW.
The Authority reviewed the current manual
and updated the regulatory requirements
to include additional process control
measures. Because of the food safety
recalls, the requirements for sprouts were
revised first.
On 1 October 2007 it will become a
condition of licence to comply with the
requirements set out in the Plant Products
Safety Manual published by the Authority.
The updated manual can be found at
www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/industry
In April 2005 the NSW Food Authority
implemented the NSW Plant Products Food
Safety Scheme which requires businesses
that produce high-priority plant products,
including seed sprouts, to implement
HACCP based food safety programs.
An evaluation of food safety practices in
these high risk plant product businesses
was undertaken from June 2005 to
February 2006.
The evaluation generated a number
of general and industry specific
recommendations, one of which is the
review of the Plant Product Safety Manual.
The revised regulatory requirements for
sprouters include:
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Seed supplier approval programs
Seed pre-screening (using a statistically
valid sampling plan)
Seed sanitation
Post harvest washing
Finished product testing
The Authority consulted with industry
throughout the development of the new
requirements for the manual. This involved
a series of visits to various seed sprouter’s
facilities and discussions with producers.
Assisting delivery of the NSW State Plan
In November 2006, the NSW Government
released its ten year vision for the State,
and all government agencies were asked
to show how their public services will
contribute towards delivery of the NSW
State Plan. The Authority completed
its review of the results and services it
provides for the NSW public in May 2007
and will make contributions to three of the
five key activity areas noted in the State
Plan: delivering better services, fairness
and opportunity, and growing prosperity
across NSW.
This process also offered opportunity for
the Authority to review its core functions
and its Branch structure. With the support
of staff, the unions and stakeholders,
a better balanced branch structure
emerged in which all existing functions
were retained, no positions were lost,
opportunities to focus on addressing larger
strategic goals were identified, and where
communications with our stakeholders
could be improved.
The resulting new branches are:
• Science and Policy,
• Compliance, Investigation and
Enforcement, and
• Communication and Corporate Resources.
In the revised structure the industry
consultation program was moved to
Communication and Corporate Resources.
Authority presents
Peter Sutherland, Director of
Industry Liaison and Business
Planning with the Authority, spoke
to Honours and Masters students
of Food Technology at UNSW about
some practical applications of food
safety.
He recounted the Authority’s role
in mega events like the Sydney
Olympics and APEC.
Exporting expertise
The NSW Food Authority is assisting
the Beijing Food Administration in
food safety planning for the Beijing
Olympics next year.
Director General, George Davey,
is part of the international expert
panel appointed by the Chinese
government to oversee food safety
planning for the event.
Alternative knife sanitising
process
The MLA recently published a guide
giving a process for sanitising knives
using water at less then 82 o C.
If you wish to use the alternative
method described in that guide you
must make prior application to the
Authority, giving evidence to validate
that alternative system, and gain specific
approval to use this.
Contact Peter Day on 02 9741 4803 or
at peter.day@foodauthority.nsw.gov.au
NSW Food Authority
6 Avenue of the Americas, Newington NSW 2127 | PO Box 6682, Silverwater NSW 1811
Helpline: 1300 552 406 | Fax: 02 9647 0026 | Email: contact@foodauthority.nsw.gov.au
www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au