United Fresh takes the lead in food safety

United Fresh takes the lead in food safety

New Zealand’s only pan-produce organisation, United Fresh New Zealand Incorporated, has established a new Food Safety and Traceability Committee.

United Fresh Executive Member, Dr Hans Maurer, has been appointed chairman of the committee. Also appointed to the committee are Mathew Dolan from Horticulture New Zealand, Stephen Twinn from Snap Fresh Foods and Anne-Marie Arts from The AgriChain Centre, who was also confirmed in her role as United Fresh Food Safety representative. More members will be appointed to the committee in the coming weeks.

United Fresh President David Smith says the role of the committee is to represent the interests of United Fresh members and New Zealand’s pan-produce industry.

“The purpose of the United Fresh Food Safety and Traceability Committee is to ensure commercially practical solutions emerge or are proactively developed as industry, researchers and government agencies focus on developing responses and answers to existing or anticipated food safety risks,” he says.

United Fresh members come from across the entire fresh produce value chain and include Horticulture New Zealand, retailers Foodstuffs and Countdown, wholesalers Turners & Growers, MG Marketing, Freshmax, Fresh Direct, Zespri, Pipfruit New Zealand and a number of Horticulture New Zealand product groups, as well as service providers such as CHEP New Zealand and GS1 New Zealand.

The United Fresh Executive Committee endorsed the following recommendations contained in a position paper prepared by Dr Hans Maurer, Mathew Dolan and Anne-Marie Arts;

- United Fresh and Horticulture New Zealand work together towards achieving a positive and progressive Food Safety culture in the fresh produce value chain.

- GS1 GTIN,GLN & Databar Standards are endorsed for the local market.

- The Produce Industry Food Safety & Traceability Framework is adopted as a starting point for 2015 and referred to the United Fresh Food Safety committee for further work and implementation.

- The NZ GAP committee is asked to develop the NZ GAP programme into a Foresight based “NZ GAP Plus” device, covering on- and appropriate off-farm processes, including Food Safety & Traceability, suitable for United Fresh endorsement within the Food Safety & Traceability Framework.

- The Food Safety Committee engages with MPI and other relevant agencies on behalf of the entire produce industry on all food safety and traceability related matters.

For a copy of the Food Safety and Traceability position paper, go to the United Fresh website: http://www.unitedfresh.co.nz/services/food-safety

ENDS

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