Page 6 - Comprehensive Food Safety

31.03.2020

INTRODUCTION

WHY?

Everyone working in the food industry has a responsibility to make sure that the food we buy is
safe and suitable to eat. The Food Act 2014 is the legislation that was introduced to help make
sure that food sold throughout New Zealand is safe and suitable to eat:

• ‘Safe food’ won’t make people sick
• ‘Suitable food’ meets compositional, labelling and identification requirements and is in
the right condition for its intended use

The Act brings in new food safety measures that everyone has to abide by:

• Food control plans (FCPs) – written plans for managing food safety on a day-to-day basis

• National programmes – a set of food safety rules for medium and low risk business

FOOD CONTROL PLANS

According to the Act, “a food control plan” is a plan designed for a particular food business to
identify, control, manage, and eliminate or minimise hazards or other relevant factors for the
purpose of achieving safe and suitable food.” It is the law that you have to have it in place in
your food business.

The food control plan sets out what steps a business making or selling higher-risk foods needs
to take to make food safe. You use it to identify risks, and to show how they’re being managed.
It means customers will know your food is safe – and it can help you create a successful food

business.

If English isn’t your first language, MPI has copies of the Simply Safe and Suitable food control
plans translated on their website:

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety/food-act-2014/forms-and-templates/

They are available in Chinese, Hindi, Khmer/Cambodian, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese.

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