$1.6 million initiative to boost food safety

28 Jul 2006

The State Government today welcomed a new partnership between the NSW Food Authority and local councils that will further boost consumer food safety and enable authorities to respond more quickly to food emergencies and recalls, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said today.

Minister Macdonald told a Mayoral Roundtable meeting at Boorowa today the State Government had allocated $1.6 million in 2006/07 for the new initiative that will improve food safety coordination between councils and the Food Authority.

“The State Government showed it was serious about food safety two years ago when it established the NSW Food Authority – Australia’s first fully integrated, one-stop food safety regulator,” Mr Macdonald said.

“This takes that a step further with the role of local councils being better defined so we can stamp out duplication and inefficient allocation of resources across NSW in the campaign against unsafe and incorrectly labelled food.

“The Food Authority and councils already enjoy a strong working relationship and we want that to be even stronger and deliver even better outcomes for NSW. Greater coordination also means we can respond even faster to food emergencies and recalls.”

Local Government Minister Kerry Hickey said the partnership was the result of many months of close consultation with councils across NSW and was based on an agreed model that ensures all 152 councils in NSW undertake a food regulatory role according to their capacity and resources.

“The State Government recognises the important contribution to food safety made by our local councils,” Mr Hickey said. “The bottom line is to make sure the people of NSW continue to get access to safe and correctly labelled food, and we are confident this new initiative will deliver just that.”

The Local Government and Shires Associations welcomed the new partnership, saying it would help improve food safety by eliminating duplication and better targeting resources.

“We are confident this will usher in an era of increased cooperation between State and Local Government,” Local Government Association President Councillor Genia McCaffery said.

“It’s no secret that councils often have much better “on the ground” knowledge about local problems and our new partnership gives councils training and support to help regulate retail and food service businesses in their local area,” she said.

Shires Association President Councillor Colin Sullivan OAM said the consumers would be the big winners.

“This is all about delivering better food safety for consumers and that’s something local councils and the Local Government and Shires Associations unequivocally supports,” Cr Sullivan said.