Green hope NZFSA review will mark a turning point

The Green Party is welcoming the appointment of international expert Dr Stuart Slorach to head an independent review of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority’s risk management decision-making processes.

“This will be the fist close scrutiny of the NZFSA’s decision-making processes and we hope it will mark a turning point in the way the authority operates and will result in a more robust transparent and precautionary approach to food safety issues,” Safe Food Spokesperson Sue Kedgley says.

“The NZFSA’s approach to-date has been characterised by apparent bias and a pattern of putting trade interests ahead of consumer protection and we hope that this review will lead to more independent and more impartial approach.

“We welcome the fact that as well as assessing the decision-making processes around A1 and A2 milk, it will also examine the NZFSA’s strategy for the control of campylobacter in poultry, aspartame as a food additive, and our imported food regime including food from China.

“Clearly this is a far more robust and wide-ranging review than was envisaged by the Authority’s Chief Executive Andrew McKenzie, who clearly saw it as a public relations exercise when he stated publicly in October that the purpose of the review was to ‘see if we could bury this once and for all’.”