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Food safety culture
Food safety culture On this page
Food safety culture is about attitudes, behaviours and the priority given to food safety in an organisation. In a food business, it is how everyone (owners, managers, employees) thinks and acts in their daily job to make sure the food they make or serve is safe…Published 30 September 2025
Sugar
Sugar Sugars are carbohydrates that occur naturally in many foods but are also added as ingredients to foods. Like most carbohydrates they are used by the body for energy. Sugars can be derived from different sources. In Australia and New Zealand sugar for commercial use is mostly extracted from sugarcane. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose, and galactose. The sugar most commonly used as table sugar is sucrose. This sugar is a disaccharide which is broken down in the body to fructose and glucose, so it can be used for energy. Is there a nutritional difference between the different types of sugars (e.g. white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar)? There is very little difference between types of sugar you find in the supermarket (e.g. white,…
Published 28 August 2019
History of Novel Foods Standard
History of Novel Foods Standard In 1996, the then Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) released a discussion and options paper entitled 'The safety assessment of novel foods and novel food ingredients'. It was felt necessary at that time because the number, variety and increasing use of non-traditional foods raised questions about public health and safety. ANZFA received stakeholder support to develop a Standard to formally regulate novel foods for the first time. ANZFA started Proposal P168 - Novel Foods, to formally consider the need to regulate such foods in Australia and New Zealand. The authority recommended that novel foods be considered a sub-set of non-traditional foods and proposed definitions. It stipulated that no novel foods could be sold until first listed in that Standard. To do this,…
Published 22 March 2013
Trans fatty acids
Trans fatty acids Trans fatty acids (TFAs), occur both naturally in foods and can be formed or added to foods during manufacture. Naturally occurring TFAs are found in some animal products including butter, cheese and meat. Manufactured TFAs (also known as artificial TFAs) are formed when liquid vegetable oils are partially hydrogenated or 'hardened' during processing to create spreads such as margarine, cooking fats for deep-frying and shortening for baking. Some TFAs are also formed during high temperature cooking. Are trans fatty acids harmful? There is strong evidence that TFAs increase the amount of 'bad' low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in our blood, a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. Also, TFAs may decrease the levels of 'good' high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in blood…
Published 16 April 2019
Novel foods
Novel foods Novel foods are non-traditional foods that require assessment by FSANZ to establish their safety before they are added to the food supply. In Australia and New Zealand, novel foods and novel food ingredients are regulated under Standards 1.1.1 and 1.5.1 in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code). A novel food cannot be a food for retail sale or an ingredient in a food for retail sale unless it is listed in the table to section S25 - 2 (sale of novel foods) of the Code. The table lists permitted novel foods together with their conditions for use including use levels, restrictions on use and labelling requirements. Anyone wanting to sell a novel food or a food containing a novel food ingredient must apply to FSANZ for the Code to be amended to list the food or ingredient in…
Published 27 June 2022
Advisory Committee Novel Foods
Advisory Committee Novel Foods Terms of Reference
- Consider enquiries in relation to potential novel foods (in conjunction with the required data), including previously considered enquiries in relation to potential novel foods where new data has been submitted.
- Make recommendations to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) General Manager - Food Standards (Wellington) in response to enquiries in relation to potential novel foods. The recommendations should contain the following advice:(a) Whether the food that is the subject of the enquiry should be considered a 'non-traditional food' in accordance with the definition in Standard 1.5.1.(b) Whether an assessment of public health and safety considerations should be required for the food that is the subject of the enquiry to…
Published 24 November 2017
Wholegrain food
Wholegrain food Wholegrain food is any food which uses every part of the grain including the outer layers, bran and germ. This definition applies even if these parts are separated during processing and regardless of whether the grain is in one piece or milled into smaller pieces. Under the Food Standards Code Standard 2.1.1 the term wholegrain refers to: the term wholegrain refers to:
- whole and intact grains as found in some bread and crisp breads
- puffed or flaked grains in some breakfast cereals
- coarsely milled or kibbled wheat found in breads such as pumpernickel
- ground grains such whole wheat flour used to make wholemeal bread.
Published 24 June 2016
Meat pies
Meat pies Australians each eat an average of 12 meat pies a year, that’s 270 million pies, while in New Zealand they are even more popular, with the average Kiwi eating 15 meat pies, which is 66 million a year. So it’s no wonder that at Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) many visitors to our website are seeking information about meat pies. Much of the interest in meat pies is about how much meat is in a pie and what kind of meat is used. The Food Standards Code stipulates that a meat pie must contain a minimum of 25 per cent of meat flesh. According to the Code, meat flesh means:
‘The skeletal muscle of the carcass of any buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit or sheep, slaughtered other than in a wild state (i.e. not bush meat), plus any attached…Published 3 November 2023
Food fortification
Food fortification In this section
How much sodium do Australians eat?
How much sodium do Australians eat? FSANZ estimates that Australians aged two years and older eat an average of 2,150 mg of sodium per day from an average of 5,500 mg of salt (5.5 g). About 80 per cent of this would be from processed foods and 20 per cent from salt used at the table or in home cooking. This estimate of sodium intake from salt does not include the smaller amounts of sodium coming from naturally occurring sodium or sodium-containing food additives. Because this is an average, there will be a lot of Australians who eat more than this and more than the recommended maximum intakes. Read more about sodium and salt Foods that contribute the most to Australians' salt consumption are bread and bread rolls, meat, poultry and game products, including processed meat, and cereal products…
Published 10 June 2015