Damien O'Connor launches simpler food safety standards for cheesemakers

Cheesemaker Biddy Fraser-Davies took her fight over food regulations to Parliament. Photo / Lynda Feringa

Artisan cheesemakers will no longer have to work under burdensome food safety regulations after the Government announced a new and easier way to meet food standards.

Food Safety Minister Damien O'Connor launched the Food Safety Template for Cheesemakers at The Great Eketahuna Cheese Festival today.

"The Food Safety Template for Cheesemakers, developed for the first time in partnership with artisan cheesemakers, pulls together regulatory requirements, making it easier and cheaper to meet important food safety standards," O'Connor said.

Cheese producers are required under the Food Act and the Animal Products Act to have a written plan to manage food safety risks on a day-to-day basis.

"Over the years this has become burdensome and costly for cheesemakers who build plans from scratch and have them verified under two laws."

Eketahuna cheesemaker Biddy Fraser-Davies has been at the forefront of the push to make the regulatory red tape easier, and cheaper.

In 2016, she took her award-winning Cwmglyn Farmhouse Cheese wares to Parliament's primary production committee for a taste test as she delivered her message that small producers were pushed to the brink by regulations and the cost of compliance and testing.

Fraser-Davies recommended that low production raw milk cheesemakers who made safer versions of cheeses should be allowed to operate with reduced testing.

Comment was being sought from Fraser-Davies today.

Last week O'Connor launched New Zealand Food Safety, a new business unit in MPI.
It will look at ways to make compliance easier for small, regional and rural food businesses.