Verification New Zealand Limited

Food Safety SMART FOOD BUSINESS The Food Act 1981 has been amended to legally recognise food control plans. Food businesses can apply for exemption from the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974 by registering their food control plan. Food businesses now take responsibility for producing or handling safe food to protect themselves and their customers. This new scheme is instead of the old annual council inspection regime, which is being phased out, eventually. WHAT IS HACCP? HACCP is a system that allows you to deal with important food safety issues yourself. It requires answers to key questions about the safety of the food which you produce or handle. What type of business am I involved in? What are the food safety hazards associated with my business? How can I show I have controlled or removed these hazards? What will I do if things go wrong? Once you have answered these questions, applied the key controls that have been identified and kept those controls in place, you are in a position to confidently say, "I know I provide safe food". HOW DO I DEVELOP MY FOOD CONTROL PLAN? The ideal internationally recognised tool to give assurance of food safety is the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. The starting point is the hazard analysis. This involves a systematic review of all processes, practices and products to determine what hazards there are to human health. It is important that suitable expertise is used at this time. A recognised code of practice can be used, which will save a lot of time and effort. Many such codes are being developed and will be available in due course. At the present time there are only few. If you don't have a code of practice, the food control plan will have to be developed from scratch. You may have suitably trained people on staff or you may like to contract an outside food safety consultant. Food control plans will generally start with a flow chart of each of the food processes. The flow charts need to be in detail and show all inputs, outputs and steps along the way. It may be possible to group like products together. The hazards, whether microbiological, chemical or physical are identified. Measures to control them are decided upon, along with critical limits or process specifications. Monitoring at each critical control point will be necessary, with records kept. A process for corrective action if problems are identified will be needed. For more detailed information, go to the NZFSA website (www.nzfsa.govt.nz). THE EXEMPTION PROCESS The ideal internationally recognised tool to give assurance of food safety is the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. The starting point is the hazard analysis. This involves a systematic review of all processes, practices and products to determine what hazards there are to human health. It is important that suitable expertise is used at this time. A recognised code of practice can be used, which will save a lot of time and effort. Many such codes are being developed and will be available in due course. At the present time there are only few. Typically, the exemption process is as follows: An optional pre-assessment visit. This visit can be important. It gives you a chance to confirm that your written procedures meet the requirements for a food control plan and that you are ready for the audit process. Once you've completed your documentation you have two choices. The first option is to submit your manual to NZFSA via your local public health unit. They will review the manual (evaluation), ask any questions they may want answered, get you to make changes as they see fit and finally issue the exemption certificate. This carries a requirement to have a verification audit within 28 days of the date of issue of the exemption certificate. We will check your manual and other documentation to ensure that they meet the requirements of the chosen code of practice or good operating practice. We will carry out on-site audit or food safety assessment. This audit is to ensure that you practise what you say you do. This visit is an opportunity for you and your people to talk with us and for us to provide feedback on the effectiveness of your food control plan. After your audit you will receive a constructive report summarising the assessment findings and detailing any necessary corrective actions. The second option is to proceed with the onsite verification audit as above. In this option we will spend a little extra time on the manual. You still need to submit the manual to NZFSA via the public health unit, as it is NZFSA who issue the exemption certificate. Despite our audit finding the system to be well implemented, NZFSA can still ask for changes to the written words. Food control plans will generally start with a flow chart of each of the food processes. The flow charts need to be in detail and show all inputs, outputs and steps along the way. It may be possible to group like products together. The hazards, whether microbiological, chemical or physical are identified. Measures to control them are decided upon, along with critical limits or process specifications. Monitoring at each critical control point will be necessary, with records kept. A process for corrective action if problems are identified will be needed. For more detailed information, go to the NZFSA website (www.nzfsa.govt.nz). AFTER EXEMPTION Once you have received your exemption certificate from the NZFSA, we will regularly visit your business to confirm that your food control plan continues to comply with the requirements for HACCP and good operating practice. The timing of visits after that depends on the scale and complexity of your food control plan. The Food Act 1981 requires at least an annual audit by an approved food safety auditor. VERIFICATION NEW ZEALAND LTD'S INSPECTION CERTIFICATE Verification New Zealand Ltd offer their own certificate, following successful completion of the audit process. This may allow early recognition of your performance, as the exemption process can take some time. For businesses that are not yet ready for exemption this certificate is valuable as proof of your commitment to providing safe food. Verification New Zealand Ltd may issue a certificate that clearly confirms your performance against any published standard, code of practice or customer requirement. Talk to us about your needs.