MEMORANDUM 26
Submitted by Wayne Morris
I forward you a submission concerning the above.
I make these comments both as a consumer and
professional who used to express Food Hygiene regulations as a
Environmental Health Officer, so my comments are valid and relevant.
1. Food Safety begins at the point of food production—at
the farm.
Food Safety enforcement must therefore embrace
the farm—animal husbandry, use of hormones, overcrowding
of the food animals, vegetable growing, use of pesticides as genetically
modified foodstuffs, animal feed, effect on the environment, antibiotics.
If these fundamental issues are not addressed
in food production then there can be no food safety. The prepared
Food Safety Agency does not adequately address food safety at
its point of production, i.e, the farm.
Salmonella, BSE pesticide contamination, GM
foods derives from the farm, not from the retail outlet.
Food safety will not be improved unless enforcement
begins at the point of production—the farm.
I speak from great experience.
2. I find it alarming that many personnel at
the proposed Food Standards Agency will be transferred from the
Ministry of Agriculture.
This Ministry has never shown any interest in
food safety or public health and is largely influenced by pharmaceutical
and large supermarket chains e.g., vested interests.
This chain of vested interest must be broken
and this can begin by appointing personnel to the proposed Food
Standards Agency whose terms of reference is food safety and public
health—not the commercial interests of farmers the food
industry and pharmaceuticals.
There is no public confidence in a proposed
Food Standards Agency staffed by Ministry of Agriculture officials.
3. The proposed Agency must be transparent and
can only be so with the advent of a Freedom of Information Act.
A Freedom of Information Act is essential to
the effective enforcement of Food Standards Agency.
These are my submissions—as stated they
are valid and speak from experience as a food safety enforcer—and
consumer.
I would be happy to attend your Committee to
expand on these points and others.
The points I have raised are extremely important
to improving Food Safety and should not be ignored.
March 1999
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