Chief Executive Officer’s Review

Getting the balance right:   that’s the key to good regulatory practice.

Our food regulatory system – involving all three levels of Australian government and the Government of New Zealand – is a matrix of policy setting, regulation (food standards) development, and compliance and enforcement activities.   Public confidence in the system is high.   We have one of the safest food supplies in the world.

The FSANZ Act requires Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), as the standard setter, to underpin its decision-making with the best available scientific evidence.   This is one reason why our regulatory system is held in such high regard, both at home and overseas. An evidence-based approach imparts objectivity to our evaluation of hazards in food and our assessments of potential risks to human health.

It is the next step in the process – the development of control measures to minimise risks to consumers – that must strike an appropriate balance between competing forces.

This step is a matter of judgment.   For example, what is the minimum regulation required to achieve the desired objectives?   How much consultation is necessary before FSANZ, as the regulatory umpire, feels it is in a position to make a determination?   And, what weight should we give to the views of different sectors of the community?

Such questions are not new to FSANZ and the agency and its predecessors have addressed them and others, with considerable success, throughout its sixteen-year history.  

To a large extent, we have relied on the transparency and inclusiveness of our processes to ensure that debates on particular food issues are well informed.   In particular, we have fostered links with our regulatory partners – links designed to align philosophies and approaches throughout the food regulatory system.   We have also undertaken some of the most comprehensive consultation programs ever conducted for food matters that have a direct bearing on the health and well-being of our citizens.

Our risk management strategies now address perceived risk as well as evidence-based risk, acknowledging consumer expectations and concerns as legitimate inputs to our decision-making processes.   We recognise the value of the food industry to the national economy and the need to facilitate innovation and trade.

There is no magic formula for getting the balance right.   At some time during the standard-setting process, we must call a halt to consultation and make decisions.   Armed with inputs from stakeholders in a food matter, we must determine a way forward that may not end up being a compromise of opposing views.   Because our main priority is the wellness of the Australian and New Zealand people, we will always err on the side of the consumer.   Anything less would be an abrogation of our remit from the Australian Parliament.

From time to time, it will be necessary for us to change the balance in response to changed external circumstances – social, economic, medical or scientific – or evolving consumer standards and expectations.  

Our Board is a major contributor to our intelligence-gathering processes, alerting us not only to emerging issues, but also to changing attitudes and behaviours among our stakeholders.   This includes monitoring food regulatory developments overseas.   We have a close working relationship with Board members that we value immensely.

But, ultimately, the most effective feedback on whether we have succeeded in getting the balance right comes from the Ministerial Council, which has adopted a cautionary approach to food safety and given priority to providing consumers with the information necessary to select healthy diets.   In a formal sense, we must have regard to the advice provided by the Council; informally, we benefit from the debates involving the ten jurisdictions and take note of the views and sentiments expressed.

Getting the balance right is more of an art than a science.   However, our processes and culture allow us to do better than expose a wet finger to the wind.   There is method, even in our subjectivity.

The year in retrospect

On the organisational front, I am pleased to report that FSANZ is on a sound financial footing going forward and that we have fully aligned the undertakings we gave in the Portfolio Budget Statements 2006-07:   Health and Ageing Portfolio with the objectives of the FSANZ Corporate Plan and the reporting statements in the FSANZ Annual Report 2006-07.

New financial arrangements announced in the 2007-08 Budget will allow us to maintain our outputs at the present level, following the depletion of our reserves to achieve this in the past two years.   The arrangements will provide stability to the agency.   They will encourage us to invest more heavily in the professional development of our people and to plan our work with greater certainty.

The year has also seen the departure of our Chief Executive Officer, Graham Peachey, and our Chief Scientist, Dr Marion Healy, to other senior positions within the Australian Public Service.   Both have served the agency with distinction – I wish them well with their new endeavours.   Board Chairman, the Hon Rob Knowles, has initiated a search and selection process for a new CEO.

Also this year, our Parliamentary Secretary (and then Assistant Minister), the Hon Christopher Pyne, MP, was elevated to a full ministerial position within the Australian Government.   Senator the Hon Brett Mason has assumed this portfolio responsibility and we look forward to establishing productive relationships with the Senator and his office.   We were especially pleased that Senator Mason was able, at short notice, to attend the APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum in the Hunter Valley in April and welcome the delegates on behalf of the Australian Government.

This APEC Forum was but one of a number of international activities to which we contributed during the year, maintaining our approach of not only ensuring that our domestic food standards are underpinned by the best available scientific evidence, but also that our bi-national positions are adequately represented in international decision-making bodies.  We seconded two members of staff for extended periods to the World Health Organization and to Health Canada, respectively, to facilitate this process.

Under our three-year Science Strategy, we commenced a program of jointly hosting workshops on contemporary scientific issues in association with our regulatory partners and continued to strengthen our capabilities in economic analysis and the social sciences.

We introduced a new prioritisation tool to allocate resources to ‘discretionary’ activities – the raising of proposals and conducting of reviews – and revised our risk analysis methodology and internal processes to ensure that they can accommodate the requirements of the amended FSANZ Act, which will come into effect on 1 October 2007.  

Our aim has been to streamline and speed up our standard-setting operations without affecting the integrity of the process, the latter being crucial in maintaining the confidence of stakeholders in the food regulatory system.  

Outcomes and expectations

During the year, we successfully completed a food standard to regulate the mandatory fortification of bread with folic acid, as a public health measure.  The Ministerial Council endorsed the Board’s approval of this measure in June.

This has been a difficult project, over several years.   It has raised many issues that have hitherto lain dormant within the food regulatory system, including the appropriate role of food standards in helping governments achieve their public health outcomes.   It has sparked discussion on FSANZ’s responsibility, through food standards, to promote wellness in the population by allowing fortified products and providing consumers with better nutritional information.

This debate will continue into 2007-08 as the nutrition and health claims regime gains final approval.   At the heart of the matter lies an innovative and competitive food industry keen to extend its range of products, and consumers who now look to food to provide more than just the basic essentials of life.  The food regulatory system is evolving to accommodate both these expectations.  

While we were unable to complete the review of the novel food standard during the year, we have, in response to a request from the Ministerial Council, proposed an amendment to the Food Standards Code that will give the applicant of an approved novel food exclusive use of that product for 15 months.   We expect the Board to consider the proposal, finally, in September 2007.

We gazetted a primary production and processing standard for the dairy industry and largely completed a standard for poultry meat.   We provided the evidence necessary for the Australia New Zealand Collaboration on Trans Fats to decide on a preferred management option to reduce trans fats in food.   And we continued to approve genetically modified foods and other foods requiring pre-market safety assessments.

It would be tempting to think that the pace of standard setting will slow down now that FSANZ has almost completed the resource-intensive projects held over from the review of the Food Standards Code in 2000.  This is not so.  There are several major projects on the work plan, including completion of the mandatory iodine fortification project, a review of labelling standards, the introduction of nutrient reference values in the Code and the development of primary production standards for eggs, raw milk products and plant products.

I am confident that our systems and processes will be equal to the task.  

On behalf of my colleague, Dean Stockwell, who has been sharing with me the duties of Acting Chief Executive Officer since April 2007, I must acknowledge the enormous contribution played by our Board Chairman to the life of FSANZ this year.   Rob Knowles has been a source of wise counsel to us all.  In addition, I would like to thank retiring Board member Mrs Elaine Attwood for her five years of selfless commitment to her role.  She has represented the voice of consumers with distinction.

Finally, my thanks and those of the Executive go to our 146 staff members for a job well done. Our mission is: a safe food supply and well-informed consumers. By any measure, we continue to provide this outcome to the people of Australia and New Zealand.

Melanie Fisher
Acting Chief Executive Officer

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