Services

To get the most from your verification I provide food registration guidance and assistance to help your food business and team get ready for a successful food control plan or national programme verification.

Customised procedures and records can be effective, easy to use and relatable to your food safety practices and monitoring. I develop practical tailored food safety procedures and forms reflecting your business, product and processes. This ranges from developing a customised food control plan or tailored add-ons to support the template My Food Plan, National Programme guidance documents and forms or your food safety software. Tailored examples could be process monitoring forms, training forms, process flow diagrams, identification of food safety hazards and controls, hazard analysis critical control point, specific operating procedures, product testing etc.

A well-designed form to capture the right data encourages easy recording habits, meaningful data and quick review. I provide advice and design monitoring forms that are user friendly and give you the information needed. I can also explore with food safety software options for food control plans and process control visibility.

Once you have been operating your food safety systems you may come across some ‘pain points’. I work with you to identify improvements and gaps and develop efficient integrated food safety solutions.

When your food business changes the food control plan needs updating. I update food control plans to reflect the business changes e.g., changes in food processing, products, new equipment/ technology, new premises etc.

If you import or make and sell food in New Zealand and Australia, you need to follow the standards in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (ANZFSC) about what is required on your food labels. I provide food labelling guidance so that you can avoid the cost and inconvenience of printing incorrect food labels.

Click here for Ministry for Primary Industries labelling requirements.

Click here for Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code requirements.

If you are a food importer and need assistance to understand or meet New Zealand’s food importer requirements, I can help you navigate the requirements and work with you to develop procedures to meet importing requirements.

If you import food for sale in New Zealand, you must register as a food importer with MPI or use an agent who is registered.

Food importers are responsible for meeting the food safety requirements as set under the Food Act 2014. These include:

confirming the safety and suitability of food they will be importing,

ensuring safe handling, storing and transporting of food,

keeping good records for traceability,

being prepared to recall food if it is not safe or suitable, and

ensuring the food labelling meets the labelling and composition requirements of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

Click here for Ministry for Primary Industries importing requirements.

Decisions on whether your food needs to be tested, what tests and when testing is required can be confusing. I provide technical food testing advice for shelf-life and routine food testing, and simplified interpretation of the test results. I also assist with shelf-life validation testing for HACCP plans.

Click here for shelf-life testing guidance.

An annual simulated product recall tests your recall and product traceability procedures so that you know your systems and procedure will work in the event of a product recall. I bring independence when I help businesses with their simulated product recalls, and together we work on improvements to build more effective recall processes and product traceability.

Click here for Ministry for Primary Industries food recall information.

If you process ready to eat high risk food, you will be aware of the risk of Listeria and the need for controls. I develop Listeria management programmes that include a targeted food and environment testing plan to monitor the effectiveness of your Listeria controls. I also assist businesses with Listeria investigations, to track Listeria contamination, and can work on solutions with you.

Click here for useful MPI Listeria resources.

A strong Food safety culture is the cornerstone for making and selling safe food. Food safety culture is the food safety behaviour throughout the organisation of any business, whether large or small. A strong food safety culture requires commitment by modelling food safety behaviours from the top, removing barriers to food safety, and empowering the team to be the owners of food safety practices and policies. If you want to build a stronger food safety culture, I can assist your plan for this.

Click here for FSANZ food safety culture information.

You have a food control plan in place to ensure that day after day you make safe and suitable food. Your internal audit is a reality check that food safety is being managed, effective, procedures are current, followed and people understand what they are doing and their role in food safety.

A thorough internal audit should save you costs on your external verification and avoid surprises. I provide independent objective internal audits to identify areas of improvement, keep your food control plan current with not only business changes but also any pending legislation changes and reduce the risk of operational blindness.

By working with a key staff person, I can also make the internal audit process into a coached audit so that your key person gains a wider appreciation of the implementation of the food control plan while building on their skill set.

Your suppliers’ ingredients or packaging have an impact on your product safety and suitability. If you want additional food safety assurance in their supply, I am experienced in developing supplier audit checklists and conducting supplier audits.

If you are looking for reassurance that your food importing business is meeting the Food Act 2014 requirement relating to imported food, I can provide an internal audit and report of your food importing procedures and practices against the Food Act 2014 requirements and make recommendations for improvements.