FOOD TRANSPORTERS TO REGISTER THEIR BUSINESSES

If you grow, import, manufacture, store, transport, or sell food and beverage products, you must meet food safety requirements, including registration.

New Zealand Food Safety (a business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries) urges owners/managers of all New Zealand businesses that trade in food to find out if they need to register a plan or programme. This includes transportation businesses that move food between sites, such as refrigerated trucks and food delivery vehicles, as well as food service and food manufacturing businesses. Even if food is only a part of a business’s activity, registration may still be needed.

Businesses that transport, store or distribute food products must be registered under the Food Act 2014 or Animal Products Act 1999. Most small businesses or sole operators in the transport sector need to register under the Food Act. Companies transporting animal products may need a risk management programme under the Animal Products Act.

New Zealand Food Safety’s director of food regulation, Paul Dansted, says registration helps to ensure the food being transported or distributed is safe and suitable for customer use and provides an important link in the chain to assist in tracing food products if a problem is identified.

“Food rules are more flexible than they once were when they used to focus on the place food was made and facilities provided,” Dansted says. “These days, there is a more common sense, risk-based approach to food safety – which puts food businesses in the driver’s seat when it comes to managing any food hazards that might arise.”

New Zealand Food Safety has made it easier with a single registration that can cover multiple sites and provides greater value and flexibility.

“For instance, if you are transporting different types of food, like meat, fruit, and dairy, you may be covered by more than one piece of legislation, but you could have one plan to cover all activities,” Dansted says.

If a business is not registered, New

Zealand Food Safety and local councils may take enforcement action (ranging from educational advice, warnings and instant fines through to harsher penalties, including preventing a business from operating and prosecution). Customers may also refuse to accept their goods or use their services if they don’t comply with food safety requirements.

Registration is easy to do. Go to foodsafety.govt.nz/ my food rules and complete the online questionnaire to find out:

• Which plan or programme you need to use.

• How to register your food business.

• Who can verify (check) your business.

“If you are already registered, you can use My Food Rules to check if you are on the right plan or programme for your business,” Dansted says. “For instance, if you operate a network of food trucks, it may be cheaper and easier for you to register a ‘My Food

Plan’ Custom Food Control Plan. This tool will also help you if you’re already operating in the transport/distribution sector and would like to add a new food service to your business.”