Food safety hot topic of conference
Protecting New Zealand’s reputation as a trusted supplier of food is the theme of the inaugural conference of the New
Zealand Food Safety Authority.
The conference, “Building and Maintaining Confidence in New Zealand Food” is being held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in
Auckland on 25 and 26 March and is shaping up to be an interesting and exciting event.
“Food safety is an issue on the mind of a lot of people at present because of recent events so our conference is quite
timely. It is a complex and diverse issue and we are very much looking forward to a stimulating and lively conference,”
NZFSA director Sandra Daly said. “New Zealand already has a reputation as a trusted supplier of food and we want to keep
it that way. At this conference we’ll be looking at how we can do that, how the industry can play its part and just what
threats there are to food safety. We’ll debate and discuss the issue of food safety right through the food chain,
basically from the paddock to the plate,” Mrs Daly said.
“We have a vast range of speakers including Louis Carson from the US Food and Drug Administration and Sue Dibbs from the
National Consumer Council in the United Kingdom. Local speakers include Dick Hubbard of Hubbards Foods, Tom Lambie from
Federated Farmers, and former CEO of Trade New Zealand Fran Wilde.”
The conference will be officially opened by Minister for Food Safety Annette King with a speech about ‘Food, Consumers
and New Zealand’s reputation’. She will be followed by Fran Wilde with a speech about ‘Trade in a Demanding World’.
Mr Carson will speak about new US requirements in response to bioterrorism and we’ll look at New Zealand’s response to
threats to US trade. Dr Greg Simmons will talk about the Foodsafe Partnership and its role in educating the public about
food safety in the home.
“The core business of the NZFSA is not forgotten and there’ll be discussion on our Science Strategy, a Strategic Review
of New Zealand’s Imported Foods Programme as well as workshops on food labelling, dairy, animal products and
agricultural compounds and veterinary medicines.”