Our Regulatory Measures
Objectives
- Continue to work with our government partners to develop food standards through the bi-national food regulatory arrangements.
- Anticipate and work proactively to address new food regulatory challenges.
- Use good regulatory practice to deliver food regulatory outcomes.
Performance
- Number of standards Applications finalised within statutory timeframes and consistent with Ministerial policy guidelines.
- Number of regulatory impact statements satisfying the Office of Regulation Review’s requirements.
- Management of food emergencies and public health issue arising from food.
Highlights
- 22 Applications and 4 Proposals finalised.
- Office of Regulation Review cited one of our analyses as ‘best practice’.
- Gazetted a country of origin labelling standard.
- Successfully applied our risk evaluation process to several food emergencies.
- Strengthened our evidence base.
- Enhanced our international networks and areas of collaboration.
Overview
FSANZ’s core business is the setting of food standards. This is an evidence-based process supported by legal drafting. Food standards have to address risks to the integrity of the food supply – including lack of information for consumers – in a way that is unambiguous and capable of enforcement.
At the heart of standard-setting is the need to maintain public confidence in the safety of food for sale in the marketplace, as well as ensuring that consumers are adequately informed and able to make informed decisions. When public confidence is high, as it is at the moment in Australia and New Zealand, consumers take government regulation for granted. It is only when there is a failure in the marketplace, or when the community is divided on a food matter, that the spotlight falls on the agencies responsible for regulating food. This is as it should be.
As a key agency in the food regulatory system, we have a responsibility to ensure that our standard-setting processes are not only transparent and inclusive, but also timely and characterised by certainty. These factors are the key to public confidence. In fact, they are the key to all successful regulatory regimes. This is why FSANZ considers communication and consultation as an integral part of standard setting. This is why we have become concerned by reports from some of our stakeholders and regulatory partners that we have been unduly slow to progress Applications to change the Food Standards Code.
We reported our inability to fully meet stakeholder expectations in previous annual reports. The food industry needs the certainty of timeliness so that it can properly plan the roll out of new foods and food technologies. We are determined to remove this uncertainty. With the help of amendments to the FSANZ Act, we intend to adopt new timeframes and more rigorous guidelines for our standard-setting work to speed up our processes.
In addition, we continued to enhance the evidence base of the agency – that is, the scientific, medical, economic and social research expertise that can be called on to inform our risk assessments and risk management decisions.
FSANZ, in all its manifestations, has developed an enviable reputation for the scope and rigour of its scientific assessments. We have achieved this by recruiting high-quality scientific staff, some of whom have dedicated themselves to the service of the agency for more than a decade. We have also established scientific networks in Australia and New Zealand and around the world that enable us to remain at the cutting edge of regulatory practice.
Recently, we appointed a Chief Medical Advisor to help us assess medical issues associated with our work. This year, we appointed a Chief Public Health Nutrition Advisor to strengthen our ability to understand the consequences of nutritional changes to the food supply, especially through fortification and functional foods.
But perhaps the most significant decision taken during the year has been one to enhance the social sciences aspects of our evidence base. In particular, we have appointed a Principal Social Scientist to plan, conduct and review existing research into consumer attitudes and behaviour, leading to guidelines for industry on the evidence we require. Results from this work will support key projects such as the health claims standard, where consumer perceptions of food labels and of claims made thereon will undoubtedly have a significant influence on the eventual outcomes.
We will continue to share this evidence base with our regulatory partners, so that we are all working from the same body of evidence when discussing proposed changes to the Code. This should avoid undue delays in standard setting while individual jurisdictions consider their own positions.
By removing uncertainty in standard setting and underpinning our regulatory decisions with the best possible advice, we aim to maintain public confidence in the government’s ability to protect and inform consumers. We are confident of success.
Efficiency and effectiveness of FSANZ’s processes
In 2005, the Food Regulation Standing Committee (FRSC) commissioned a working group to investigate perceived delays in FSANZ’s standards development process, especially in dealing with Applications to amend the Food Standards Code.
At present, the process involves the preparation of three assessment reports, two rounds of public consultation and the possibility of two reviews requested by the Ministerial Council. FRSC has concluded that the present ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to Applications and Proposals to amend the Code slows down the process. Table 1 summarises the major outcomes from the FRSC review that will affect the way in which we do business.
Table 1. Summary of proposed reforms to FSANZ’s processes
The Ministerial Council endorsed the recommendations in November 2005, by which time FSANZ had already identified the internal administrative changes required to support proposed amendments to the FSANZ Act.
The Department of Health and Ageing, which has portfolio responsibility for the FSANZ Act, developed a package of legislative amendments to give effect to the policy recommendations developed by FRSC. These measures also drew on our earlier streamlining work. The legislative amendments will form the basis of a FSANZ Act Amendment Bill intended for introduction into Parliament during this year’s Spring sittings. We expect the amendments to take effect in early 2007, with a lead-in time of three months for all new Applications. FSANZ provided technical assistance to the Department throughout the development of the package of legislative amendments.
Amendments to the FSANZ Act will not only address the recommendations of the FRSC review, but also changes proposed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the Ministerial Council in 2004 and a number of technical matters.
We have established an Implementation Unit to ensure the smooth and effective rollout of the administrative changes. For example, we have reviewed all our existing guidelines for applicants and are in the process of developing new guidelines for health claims, general labelling, fortification and microbiological standards.
In the first quarter of 2006-07, we will consult with the food industry on our guidelines, develop prescribed forms and checklists for applicants and amend our scale of Application fees to reflect the changed conditions. We will then consolidate this material into a manual for publication on the FSANZ website.
Applications and Proposals gazetted 1 July 2005 – 30 June 2006
We gazetted 22 variations to food standards arising from Applications (19 in 2004-05) and 4 variations to standards arising from Proposals (4 in 2004-05). Please refer to Appendix 1 for more details .
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