A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry May 1996
Contents: Salmonella from unexpected sources | BSE: an update | HACCP and national food hygiene legislation | Victorian food hygiene project | Campylobacter food infection | Australian meat standards | Food irradiation | Tainting: always a potential problem
HACCP and national food hygiene legislation
The National Food Authority (NFA) is planning to release its draft food hygiene standard for public comment by mid-1996. An essential feature of this standard will be the requirement for all food businesses to have a food safety plan based on HACCP principles. There will be a phasing in of this requirement for different sectors of the food industry.
One person whose role will change significantly when this standard is introduced is the environmental health officer (EHO). An interesting paper written from the EHO's perspective by Scott Burton appears in Environmental Health Review, February 1996. In this paper, Mr Burton makes the point that while the HACCP model is suitable for medium and large food processing industries, regulators soon will face the challenge of applying it to small food premises. This will necessitate adaptation of HACCP to cater for the unique social, cultural and economic characteristics associated with small food premise owners/operators and employees.
Mr Burton makes the following recommendations to help ensure the effective implementation of HACCP to small food premises:
- all stakeholders to be consulted extensively prior to the development and introduction of new legislation
- the NFA initiate a national survey to assess the 'actual' resource allocation provided by Governments to food surveillance
- future HACCP-based legislation provide sufficient flexibility for EHOs to achieve realistic outcomes
- the implementation of the new system should be graduated
- a nationally accredited training system be developed and the source of funding for education and training programmes be clearly defined
- an extensive publicity campaign be developed to raise industry and public awareness of food safety issues.
Food Science Australia
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