The NFF Horticulture Council has today drawn a line in the sand, tasking national food safety regulators with taking a long hard look at themselves.
Chair of the Council Jolyon Burnett has written to Commonwealth, State and Territory members of the Food Ministers' Meeting, calling on them to instigate an independent review into the development and implementation of new food standards due to apply to fresh berries, leafy vegetables and melons from today.
Primary production and processing (PPP) standards, created by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and applied by relevant food regulatory agencies in each state and territory, are meant to strengthen food safety and traceability throughout the food supply chain.
"This has had a stink to it from the very start, when the predecessor body to the Food Ministers' Meeting kicked off this process without having first consulted industry, expressly counter to their own terms of reference," said Mr Burnett.
"Now, despite a commitment to creating nationally harmonised regulation, we have several states and territories not just departing from the model they've been handed but creating additional redtape, not for the purpose of improving food safety, but lining their own coffers.
"It's got more than a whiff of brazen revenue raising to it.
"And at the centre sits the Food Ministers' Meeting, charged with consulting closely with industry, arbitrating between the interests of several food safety stakeholders, and managing their own conflicts as both the creators and enforcers of food regulation.
"As far as we can see, it is failing to meet all of these essential duties.
"We are calling for an immediate and thorough independent review of its performance and its fitness as a governing body generally, with its role in developing and implementing new food standards for fresh berries, leafy vegetables and melons as a specific focus.
"Most states and territories haven't got the necessary legislation in place to put these standards into effect from today, despite having two and half years to prepare, and so we're also calling for a 12-month extension where this is the case.
"Consumers should not be concerned about the safety of their food but about its increasing cost.
"States and territories, without any restriction or accountability, are piling on more redtape, which only returns to them new revenues, more headaches for growers, and more expensive food during a cost-of-living crisis.
"Notwithstanding any review, we are also calling on each jurisdiction to align their implementation with the FSANZ standard, including providing for mutual recognition where growers are certified against existing voluntary food standards meeting global benchmarks."
About the Horticulture Council
The Council is the recognised peak body for forming policy and advocating on behalf of the national horticulture industry. Established in 2017, it now comprises 19 national commodity and state-based horticulture bodies.
It is a member of the National Farmers' Federation, free to establish and advance its own policy positions and responses issues impacting the horticulture industry.
