Our Stakeholders
Community involvement in our processes
Objectives
- Provide greater opportunities for community involvement in food regulatory processes (Portfolio Budget Statement 2004-2005).
- Strengthen productive working relationships with our external interest groups and government partners (FSANZ Corporate Plan 2003-2006).
Highlights
- New consultation and engagement arrangements (public briefings, targeted consultations) trialled during the year.
- Increased use of Standards Development Advisory Committees (SDACs).
- Over 300 delegates from industry, government, public health professionals and consumers from within Australia and New Zealand attended the inaugural Food Safety Conference, Gold Coast in October 2004.
- 50 people attended the Board’s stakeholder forum in Sydney and 49 the stakeholder forum in Auckland.
- Negotiated Memorandum of Understanding with international (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and national (Standards Australia) stakeholders
- Advice Line responded to approx 10,000 phone and email enquiries.
Performance
Our performance in meeting Our Stakeholder goals is measured by monitoring:
- the level of stakeholder support for our regulatory approaches;
- the level and nature of stakeholder feedback, both formal and informal, provided through the industry advice line and information officer;
- the number of invitations to consultative forums by our government partners and stakeholders;
- the extent of stakeholder participation in our consultative processes; and
- the level of engagement between our stakeholders and ourselves.
Some of these performance indicators have proved difficult to measure. As part of our planning process, we will conduct a major review of our performance measurement system in 2005-2006 and seek to develop more appropriate indicators and more measurable and achievable performance measures.
Overview
We work in partnership with others in the development and management of a food regulatory system for Australia and New Zealand. FSANZ works with a range of stakeholders - consumers, industry, public health professionals and government partners - to ensure a safe food supply and well informed consumers. We are committed to improving stakeholder involvement in the standards development process. We routinely carry out a range of consultation activities as part of our statutory requirements under the FSANZ Act 1991.
Last year we reported that one of our greatest challenges has been to respond to the changed regulatory environment and the changed relationships that this entails. Our priorities were to enhance our engagement with the jurisdictions, develop arrangements to allow us to understand stakeholder views more thoroughly, and to examine ways to increase face-to-face consultation with groups affected by the regulatory approaches that we propose.
Openness and transparency continues to be the key to public acceptance of our work. The Food Regulation Discussion Paper, endorsed by the Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC), concluded that the strength of our assessment and approval processes is the transparency of those processes and the public scrutiny of our assessments afforded to the public through open consultation.
We undertake a wide number of stakeholder engagement activities. These include presenting papers and leading workshops at conferences; formal and informal communication with stakeholder groups; establishing advisory groups around specific standards development work and negotiating Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) to foster and strengthen collaborative relationships.
The increased use of Standard Development Advisory Committees (SDACs) to inform our standards development has enabled us to gain a better understanding of the views of stakeholders. SDACs have formed a vital role in the development of the new Primary Production and Processing Standards and in the development of other major developmental work such as the Nutrition, Health and Related Claims.
The demand for advice and information on our standards development activities continues to be a major strain on our resources. With nearly 10,000 requests for information, and reduced staffing levels, the Industry Advice Line has performed to a high standard under difficult circumstances. We will need to address the sustainability of this service in the next year as we review the cost pressures facing the agency.
Community involvement in our processes
The effective involvement of stakeholders is a critical component of our standards-setting process. This is reflected in our guiding legislation. In addition to the legislative requirement for consultation, we provide a number of formal and informal opportunities for stakeholders to participate in our decision-making processes.
Consultation policy.
Our legislative framework provides, except in certain circumstances, for two rounds of public consultation in our standards development work. During the year we made 23 Initial Assessment Reports (IAR), 17 Draft Assessment Reports (DAR), 13 combined Initial Assessment/Draft Assessment Reports (IA/DAR), and 2 Preliminary Final Assessment Reports (PFAR) available for public comment. The FSANZ WorkPlan is also available for public comment.
Community Involvement Policy and Protocol.
Our Community Involvement Policy and Protocol provides guidance to stakeholders and staff on how we will meet our legislative requirements and how we will consult effectively on food standards matters. We commenced a review of this document during the year; work has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Food Regulation Standing Committee’s review of our assessment and approval processes.
Public Register.
Applications, assessment reports, submissions and other information relating to an Application or Proposal to vary the Australia NewZealand Food Standards Code are placed on our Public Register files, unless we have agreed they are commercial-in-confidence. In the past year, 22 formal requests to examine public register files were made, dealing with 19 Applications and Proposals. The requests were made by industry (12); government agencies (3); private individuals (0); educational institutions(3); community, consumer or non-profit organisations (1); consultants (3); and media (0). The Public Register is an integral part of our commitment to openness and transparency.
Public briefings.
For Applications and Proposals that are likely to be contentious and/or complex we trialled the use, during the year, of public briefing sessions to explain the issues and our processes to stakeholders. This provided an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to hear information presented directly from the particular FSANZ project team. The approach was successfully used for the Nutrition, Health and Related Claims Initial Assessment Report. Evaluation of the briefings have been highly positive, with many participants indicating that it is a highly effective consultation mechanism.
Targeted consultations.
We also trialled ‘targeted consultations’ during the year. Similar to the public briefings it was targeted at and tailored to the interest of specific stakeholder groups. Targeted consultations were conducted during the Initial Assessment Report phase of the Nutrition, Health and Related Claims Proposal.
Community Forums.
During the year, we held two stakeholder forums in conjunction with Board meetings, in Sydney and Auckland. This allowed us to canvass views on our work on food standards issues as well as to listen to the needs of the community as major contributors to the standards setting process.
Memorandums of Understanding.
FSANZ strives to strengthen partnerships and relationships with others by entering into MOUs with other interested agencies, domestically and internationally. We signed an MOU with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and are developing an MOU with Korea. Within Australia we are finalising an MOU with Standards Australia. Once in place these MOUs will form the platform for the relationship between FSANZ and these agencies.
Kahui Kounga Kai ( Maori Reference Group ).
A Maori Reference Group was formed in 2000, later to be renamed the Kahui Kounga Kai. The Kahui consists of Maori with expertise in public health, nutrition or the food industry. It is led by a kaumatua (tribal elder). A FSANZ Board member Ms Hikihiki Pihema sits as an observer on the Kahui and FSANZ staff provide administrative and professional support. The Kahui meets with the FSANZ Board during its meeting held in New Zealand each year.
The Kahui has conducted several hui (meetings) around New Zealand in the last year. The hui have been used as a forum to discuss the ways in which individual Maori would like to be consulted and appropriate mechanisms for communication with a wider Maori audience. In addition the hui have provided a forum to take back to Maori the answers to many questions that arose at the 2002 hui, in addition to several upcoming workplan issues for discussion.
The Kahui has prepared a strategic plan for 2005-2006, which includes contracting the services of a Maori delegate to work two days a week in the Wellington office to extend the Kahui database and strengthen opportunities for communication.
Standard Development Advisory Committees (SDAC).
We increased the use of external Standard Development Advisory Committees as a consultative mechanism to progress major proposals during 2004-2005. They usually involve key government, public health, consumer and industry representatives tailored to the specific issue.
Advisory committees have been used extensively in the development of Primary Production and Processing Standards, food safety program standards, and for major bodies of work such as health claims and novel foods.
This type of committee is likely to be a major component of any significant proposal work in the future and for major applications likely to require complex or high level consultation.
Other advisory groups.
An external advisory group was set up in May 2004 to assist FSANZ prepare interpretive guides for Standard 3.2.1 and the PPP Standard for Seafood. This group, comprising mainly enforcement officers, worked closely with the author of the guides as they prepared a clause-by-clause interpretation of each standard. The guides were finalised in mid 2005 and are available on the internet to give stakeholders immediate access to the document.
An external steering group on food composition has been providing valuable input to FSANZ as we undertake the compilation of nutrient data for a revised set of Australian food composition tables particularly on the content and format of the proposed new Australian food composition tables. The group, which corresponds by email, consists of representatives from education, research, health and industry sectors.
The Stakeholder Advisory Group on Evaluation has continued this year with representation from key stakeholders and provides an overview of the Evaluation Strategy and associated activities.
Stakeholder engagement and networks
SharedOutcomes
The ‘whole of government’ approach to policy development and service delivery is an issue of increasing importance across the Australian Public Service. It is defined as formal or informal work across portfolio boundaries undertaken to achieve shared goals and an integrated government response through policy development, program management and service delivery.
An internal audit report into the preparation of last year’s annual report recommended that we should provide clear, concise and meaningful analysis on the agency’s contribution and influence towards shared outcomes. As an initial step, we contacted a number of consumer, industry and government stakeholders to obtain feedback on our annual report and specifically how our stakeholders view our contributions.
We recognise the importance of good whole of government behaviours. We are a partner in the delivery of a safe food environment for all people in Australia and New Zealand. We do not do this by ourselves. We are but one element of an integrated food regulatory system.
For example, we work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and with AusAid in delivering capacity building to countries in our region. We work with the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service in managing the food import program. And we work with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority to adopt maximum residue limits into the Code.
Finally, while we are not responsible for implementing the food standards we develop, we are increasingly called upon to assist States and Territories in providing advice on implementation procedures and measures.
Industry
The agrifood and food manufacturing industry, whose activities are regulated by FSANZ, are actively involved in our processes. The size and scope of the food industry is significant, with a large number of individual companies and industry associations interested in food regulation matters. Our standards setting responsibility covers all areas of the food industry, including primary production (in Australia), food processing and manufacturing, retailing and catering.
We maintain close working relationships with industry both on a company-by-company basis and through peak bodies such as the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), the New Zealand Food and Grocery Council (NZFGC) and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). Industry representatives participate on working groups, advisory panels and on our Standard Development Committees (SDCs).
Consumers
A broad range of consumer-based organisations have demonstrated interest in food standard matters in recent years.
The key consumer organisation in Australia is the Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA). ACA publishes ‘Choice’ magazine and has been vocal over a long period of time about key food standards issues, such as nutrition, health and related claims.
Its equivalent in New Zealand is the Consumers’ Institute, which is the primary consumer-based organisation interested in food standards issues. The Consumers’ Institute also receives funding from the New Zealand Government to bring together consumer-based organisations to discuss and prepare submissions to FSANZ on food standards matters. We seek to work collaboratively with both agencies.
Government partners
FSANZ operates in a regulatory environment built upon a partnership of ten governments and several portfolio areas in each jurisdiction.
Effective engagement with the jurisdictions is important to achieving appropriate standards outcomes. We work actively through the various intergovernmental structures, such as the Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC), the Implementation Standing Committee (ISC) and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to achieve this.
We also provide technical advice to FRSC and participate in the committee established by FRSC to consider the role, structure and operations of ISC and TAG.
Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC)
FRSC comprises heads of Departments, or their delegates, for which the respective members of the Ministerial Council have responsibility, as well as the Australian Local Government Association. The Standing Committee provides advice to the Ministerial Council on the development of policy relating to the regulation of food. FRSC is chaired by the Secretary of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. FSANZ is an observer on FRSC.
Implementation Sub Committee (ISC)
An important component of the food regulatory system in Australia is the Implementation Sub Committee of the Food Regulation Standing Committee, in which FSANZ is an active participant. FSANZ’s participation is important given our statutory responsibility for coordinating food recalls, monitoring and surveillance of food in Australia and also because of our interests in developing practical and enforceable food standards.
ISC comprises heads, or their delegates, of the appropriate Australian (Commonwealth and State/Territory) and New Zealand inspection and enforcement agencies. FSANZ has a representative on ISC. Local government is also represented through the Australian Local Government Association.
ISC is responsible for developing implementation policy and oversees the development and implementation of a consistent approach across jurisdictions to enforcing food regulation and standards, regardless of whether food is sourced from domestic producers, export-registered establishments or from imports.
We chair a key ISC Working Group tasked with developing a comprehensive framework for consistent national implementation and enforcement of food regulation in Australia. This umbrella agreement will provide the foundation for the development of specific detailed operational protocols and arrangements. Two of the first of these protocols are a National Surveillance and Monitoring Policy and Protocol, and a National Food Safety Incident Management Protocol.
FSANZ liaises closely with the State and Territory jurisdictions to ensure that the food standards it develops can be effectively and consistently implemented and enforced.
Technical Advisory Group (TAG)
The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was a group of Senior Food Officers from the jurisdictions and representatives from other portfolios and was chaired by FSANZ to date. TAG has provided technical advice to FSANZ to assist in the development of food standards and assist in the coordination, surveillance and uniform interpretation of the Food Standards Code.
TAG provided a forum for the jurisdictions to share information concerning topical enforcement and compliance issues, interpretation of the Food Standards Code, media communication, surveillance and monitoring activities.
FSANZ facilitated a review of the role and functions of TAG in 2004-2005. Because of the potential for overlap with the role of ISC, we have has disbanded TAG and will work with the jurisdictions to set up an alternative group to advise on food standards issues.
Collaboration with Jurisdictions
FSANZ’s Chief Executive Officer participates in an informal network of state and territory regulators. We have collaborated with the States and Territories on a number of initiatives.
We coordinate the Food Surveillance Network, which facilitates the planning and coordination of the food surveillance and monitoring activities undertaken by government health agencies in Australia and New Zealand. The Network comprises representatives from most State and Territory jurisdictions, and the Australian and New Zealand governments and meets regularly.
We also commenced a process with State and Territory regulatory agencies to consider the development of a nationally consistent implementation strategy which has been formally endorsed by FRSC.
We have a shared outcome with a number of government agencies and our partners in New Zealand and the jurisdictions, to protect the health and safety of Australians and New Zealanders.
Public health professionals
Public health professionals provide considerable input to our role of protecting of public health and safety through the food supply. We actively engage with representatives from this sector and participate in forums such as the Strategic Intergovernmental Nutrition Alliance (SIGNAL), a sub-committee of the National Public Health Partnership, established to coordinate action to improve the nutritional health of Australians.
Communication
The FSANZ Communication Strategy was updated during the year to reflect the priorities identified through our internal planning processes.
We took a lead role in establishing a Government Food Communicators Group with the jurisdictions to share information on issues and communication strategies as well as to develop risk communication practices further. We successfully implemented major education campaigns for Mercury in Fish and for Listeria. The Food Safety Conference attracted over 300 registrations and resulted in positive media coverage, on radio and television and in print, to an audience of almost 900 000.
We managed Food Safety Week in November and Christmas messages on food safety. Evaluation showed a total audience reach of over 16 million. Our priorities during the year included:
- Assisting jurisdictions and industry to better understand the requirements of the Food Standards Code through an outreach program of seminars and conference attendances, particularly in the labelling area following results from the labelling monitoring survey. This initiative was delayed due to changed staffing arrangements.
- Taking a lead role in driving risk communication within the organisation, especially for major projects such as health claims, fortification, food safety programs, country of origin labelling, and primary production and processing standards.
- Expanding links on food safety emergencies with other government communicator groups in health, agriculture, biosecurity and emergency management as well as with overseas regulators. We participated, for example, in the Emergency Animal Disease (EAD) Crisis Communication training.
Government Food Communicators Group
FSANZ chairs the Government Food Communicators Group which was established in August 2004. The group consists of communicators from food and health agencies in all the jurisdictions, including New Zealand and Australian Government agencies.
The group met face-to-face in Queensland in October 2004 and Canberra in April 2005, with teleconferences held in September and December 2004 and July 2005. During the year the group worked on a number of communication strategies for food emergencies, Food Safety Week and the new Seafood Primary Production and Processing Standard.
Industry and consumer advice
The FSANZ Advice Line was established in 2001 as a short-term service to assist the food industry (mainly small businesses) and the jurisdictions to navigate their way through the Food Standards Code. No additional funding was provided for this service. The Advice Line was reviewed in 2003 and it was decided that the service should continue. During the year the Advice Line answered a total of 9,867 enquiries by email or phone, which included 60,740 questions, that is an average of 6.2 questions an enquiry. While the number of enquiries has remained reasonably constant through the year, the number of questions per enquiry has decreased. This may be due to increasing knowledge of the Food Standards Code among stakeholders.
The majority of enquiries were from the food industry (51.7%), followed by lawyers or consultants (23.8%) then government agencies (16.3%), consumers (6.7%) and community organisations (1.5%).
In addition the Information Officer handled a large number of enquiries from consumers and industry mainly concerning standard development issues and publications.
Website
FSANZ uses a number of communication tools to reach stakeholders, the principal one being the website. During the year visits to the website increased from 1,774 visits a day in July 2004 to 3,688 visits a day in June 2005. The most popular pages accessed were the Food Standards Code, media releases, the Nutrition Panel Calculator, the ‘What’s in food’ consumer advice, food additives, Standards Development, ‘About FSANZ’ and food recalls.
During the same period the average time spent on each visit decreased from 12.50 minutes in June 2004 to 8.09 minutes in July 2005, possibly due to users being able to better navigate their way around the site.
A few changes were made to the website during the year, including the addition of separate pages for major issues such as health claims and fortification. Compared with previous years there were few web-comments emailed to us, those comments sent to us related to the need for an improved search engine and difficulties logging on to our subscription services. Both these issues should be resolved early in 2005-06.
Food Standards News and electronic updates
Editions of Food Standards News moved from bimonthly to quarterly during the year as subscribers to our electronic email update service increased from 10,000 to 11,000. Thirty-eight of these updates were sent out during the year. The update service allows media releases, fact sheets and information on consultation to be emailed out in a rapid and timely way, leaving Food Standards News for lengthier articles. Less than 100 people now request hard copies of Food Standards News, which is mainly sent out electronically.
Media relations
FSANZ issued 22 media releases during the year compared to 29 in 2003-04 and we answered a total of 731 media enquires compared with over 900 the previous year. Media issues included country of origin labelling, transfats, fish mislabelling, sudan dyes, GM food (especially GM corn), juice bars, Food Safety Week, food safety at Christmas, hijiki seaweed, iodine fortification, folate fortification, organic foods, pesticide residues, Health Claims, lead in cornflour, the intense sweetener Tagatose and the food additive calcium proprionate.
Food Safety Conference, October 2004
We played a significant role in promoting and managing the inaugural Food Safety Conference, held on the Gold Coast in October 2004.
The purpose of this conference was to facilitate discussion and information sharing by regulators and other stakeholders interested in food safety. It provided an excellent opportunity for FSANZ and other agencies to present to key stakeholders on several current and topical issues relating to the future directions of food safety. It also served to provide an opportunity for informal relationship building.
The CEO was part of a CEO’s Steering Committee and FSANZ provided liaison and management of the organisation of the conference in partnership with other agencies, primarily Safe Food Queensland.
Evaluation demonstrated high levels of support for the conference, which will be run again in 2007 in NSW.
Food Safety Information Council
FSANZ is a founding member of, and active participator in, the Food Safety Information Council, whose role is to educate Australian consumers on safe food handling. The Council is a not-for-profit organisation with members from government agencies in all the states and territories and the Australian Government as well as community, consumer, professional and industry organisations. The Food Safety Information Council works closely with the New Zealand Foodsafe Partnership that has a similar role in New Zealand.
The 2004 Food Safety Week and Christmas Food Safety campaigns were very successful and reached an estimated audience of 16,996,292. This compared with an audience of just under 15 million in 2003. During the year 43,667 people visited the Food Safety Information Council website, www.foodsafety.asn.au . The theme for Food Safety Week in November 2004 was ‘Protecting tiny tummies and sensitive systems’ and the information was aimed at vulnerable populations: the very young, the immuno compromised and the elderly. A particularly successful document was a fact sheet on food safety for people taking food to relatives and friends in aged care facilities. Over 140,000 of these fact sheets have been distributed. The theme for Food Safety Week 2005 is ‘Food on the move’ and will focus on food safety for travellers and campers in Australia and Australians travelling overseas.