Proposal P1052 - PPP Requirements for Horticulture (Berries, Leafy Vegetables and Melons)

On 12 August 2022, new primary production and processing standards were introduced for berries, leafy vegetables and melons.

Three new standards have been included in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code:

The standards aim to strengthen food safety management on-farm and during initial processing to reduce food safety risks along the supply chain from farm to fork.

The new requirements will take effect from 12 February 2025. Guidance material to support implementation will be developed in collaboration with industry and governments.

Background 

In June 2018, the then Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (now the Food Ministers' Meeting (FMM)) noted the increase of foodborne illness outbreaks in Australia and requested that FSANZ reassess food safety risk management across three horticultural sectors.

FSANZ raised proposal P1052 to consider regulatory and non-regulatory food safety risk management measures for berries, leafy vegetables and melons. 

Proposal P1052 was assessed under FSANZ's major procedure, which required two rounds of public consultation held from February to March 2020 and November 2021 to February 2022. P1052 was approved by the FSANZ Board on 22 June 2022, and considered by food ministers at their meeting in August 2022.  

All assessment documents, including consultation submissions are below. 

Approval documents

NOTE: Costs of illness in the assessment of P1052 were estimated using a recently revised model developed for FSANZ by the ANU.

The Explanatory Statement for the Consequential Amendments to the Food Standards Code resulting from P1052 was updated on the Federal Register of Legislation to include the correct sunsetting and disallowance provisions under the Legislation Act 2003 on 11 October 2022.

Previous consultations

Second call for submissions

The second call for comment opened 17 November 2021 and closed 16 February 2022. 

Submissions received (zip 11 mb)

Information received in response to the second call for submissions helped to inform our decision on this proposal.

First call for submissions

Our first call for comment opened 5 February 2020 and closed 25 March 2020.

Administrative Assessment report  (pdf 135 kb) | 

 

Targeted Consultation Survey 

In December 2020 - January 2021, we invited berry, leafy vegetable and melon producers and processors to participate in a consultation survey. The purpose of the survey was to learn more about the business operations of these stakeholders, their food safety culture and the impacts of COVID-19. 

More information