New food rules may hurt small businesses

Finding a pie in an out-of-the-way dairy could become problematic if tough new food hygiene regulations become law.

The Food Safety Authority is seeking submissions on its proposals to completely rewrite the country's 30-year-old food hygiene regulations.

Long-hallowed rules such as keeping milk at temperatures below 7C would be swept away.

Instead, every food business, from Fonterra down to roadside food stalls, would have to adopt a food control plan specifying staff training, "good operational practice" and hazard control procedures.

The New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health, representing food inspectors, says there are wide concerns about the proposals. Its president, Isobel Stout, says the authority is getting the message that its plan would be "overkill".

The ideas will mean little more than extra costs for some food outlets, says Waihi Beach Superette owner Ruby Dauphin, who yesterday slammed the proposed food laws as "bullshit".

"Basically, at the end of the day, it is more work for us. People today are really aware of the way we handle food, why make it harder when we are already aware?"

The proposals have prompted the country's smallest district council, Clutha, south of Dunedin, to ask Prime Minister Helen Clark and other MPs to modify the proposals, which would force all of the country's 30,000 food businesses to adopt the food-control plans.

The plans would be audited regularly.

Clutha says the authority's "heavy-handed" proposals would drive many small outlets out of business and force people in rural areas to drive to bigger centres for their basic food needs.

In a submission to the authority, the council argued: "Social costs to small communities of failing food businesses can be significant.

"Travel to larger towns and cities to purchase basic food needs, or that lack of availability of catered foods at social venues or convenience food outlets, will encourage the loss of population within the areas that are no longer adequately serviced."

But the Restaurant Association, representing restaurants and some takeaway outlets, says the proposals are "a step in the right direction".

"I believe diners and takeaway customers have a right to be reassured that their food is being prepared under some good control systems, and that is not going to come cheap," said association chief executive Neville Waldren.

New Zealand leads the developed world in instances of food poisoning, mainly due to the way foodstuffs are stored and prepared.

The Food Safety Authority will take submissions on the proposed changes until the end of next month.

Chief executive Dr Andrew McKenzie said simple "off-the-peg" model plans would be available so small cafes, dairies and takeaway bars could "more or less just fill in the spaces for that business".

But Clutha environmental health officer Bob Draper said the documents seemed likely to be "too daunting" for small-town businesses run on a shoestring, often by immigrant families with poor English.

He said he was now able to help such businesses, because he lived locally and called on each food outlet on schedules ranging from every nine months to every two years, depending on the risk.

"The support that we make available means that we are perceived as helpful to those businesses and in consequence recommendations are usually taken on board," the council says in a submission on the proposals.

But Mr Draper said Clutha could not afford accreditation as a verification agency under the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), because he was the council's only environmental health officer and spent only half his time on food.

That meant Clutha food outlets would have to be audited by out-of-town agencies that would charge for travel costs from Dunedin or Christchurch as well as for inspection time.

Some would be private-sector verifiers who would have an incentive to find faults so they could charge for a second inspection.

In a recent case, a pet food manufacturer was charged $675 for a single visit by a food-control verifier.

In contrast, Clutha District Council charged just $127 a year for premises visited every nine months.

"The costs this could add to small businesses working on narrow profit margins could make all the difference between them being able to cope and going under," Mr Draper said.

However, Dr McKenzie said the authority would make sure costs stayed "under the fiscal lid of what it costs today overall".

"If it's any more expensive we are going to be in trouble because we are going to get guys like him yipping and yapping - and worse than that, voters," he said.

But he said the authority would insist on basic training for all staff in food outlets.

"Someone should be responsible for saying, 'Here are the rules, you have to wash your hands', and so on."

Food law proposals

* Specific rules such as keeping milk below 7C would be abolished.

* All restaurants, takeaway bars, groceries and other food outlets would have to adopt food control plans specifying staff training, good practices and dealing with hazards.

* The Government says the new rules will reduce food poisoning and improve hygiene.

* One district council says the costs will drive small-town food outlets out of business.