THE HON TRISH WORTH MP
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Health and Ageing
6 December 2002
GOVERNMENT WARNS OF FUTURE THREATS TO FOOD SAFETY
Australia must not become complacent in its thinking about emerging threats to food safety despite an excellent track record, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Trish Worth, warned today.
Ms Worth, speaking at the 2nd Fellows Symposium of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) at Old Parliament House in Canberra, said new food safety issues had been identified that needed to be tackled.
The key areas identified include:
- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE) in cattle (also known as mad cows disease);
- chemical carcinogens in foods (eg chloropropanols and possibly acrylamide);
- the growing propensity of manufacturers to add non-culinary herbs and other complementary medicines to foods;
- increasing levels of allergies in our population (particularly in children); and
- the growing level of overweight and obesity.
“A relatively small body like FSANZ cannot – and should not – address these issues alone,” Ms Worth said.
“I am pleased that continuing work is being done by FSANZ to develop its relations with counterpart overseas regulators and with international bodies such as the World Health Organization. The continuing emergence of threats to the safety of the food supply also underlines the importance of the FSANZ Fellows program.”
Ms Worth said the FSANZ Fellows is comprised of representatives from Australia and New Zealand, distinguished in areas of science and other disciplines, who provide advice and assistance to the FSANZ Board and staff.
Ten Fellows were appointed in 2000 for a term of three years. A further four Fellows have recently been appointed by the FSANZ Board. They are: Professor Jeff Borland (University of Melbourne), Dr Martin Cole (Food Science Australia), Professor John McNeil (Monash University) and Professor Roger Morris (Massey University, New Zealand).
Ms Worth also welcomed the transition on 20 December, to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code as a harmonised set of food standards for Australia and New Zealand, which will provide substantial improvements over the existing regulations.
“The wide-scale removal of unnecessary prescriptive requirements provides much greater flexibility and capacity for innovation in the food industry,” Ms Worth said.
“The new standards include major labelling initiatives which will give consumers an unprecedented amount of information about their foods to allow them to choose healthier diets and to make better informed food choices.