New Zealand Food Safety Summit

NZ Food Safety Summit 2019 Tuesday 10th December, Auckland

Raniera Bassett and his team did a great job of the greeting – mihi – and followed it with a song – waiata. The warm welcome was appropriate given New Zealand Food Safety’s recent launch of the 5-year Food Safety Strategy. One of the priorities is: “We will work in genuine partnership with Maori.”

Setting the scene Ray Smith, Director, General of MPI, opened with a few key facts: • Our annual agricultural and horticultural exports are over $47 billion • We produce enough food for 50 million people We achieve this via an agricultural system with a relatively low environmental impact, and a biosecurity system admired around the world. This gives us advantages in trade and supports our prosperity. Bryan Wilson, Deputy Director-General of New Zealand Food Safety outlined the 5-year Food Safety Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan. The strategy and action plan were very impressive, as were the brochures and links that support it. You can download them at these links www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/38951-new-zealand-food-safetystrategy and www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/38948/direct (the Action Plan) Dr Nick Roskruge, Associate Professor of Horticulture at Massey University, spoke on forming genuine partnerships with Maori. He emphasised that relationships – whakawhanaungatanga - were the key to getting buy-in and outputs from partnerships. Food fraud Dr Amy Kircher is Director of the Food Protection and Defence Institute at the University of Minnesota. Prior to 9/11, her title may well have been something else, but terrorism has had a profound effect on food safety in the US. Dr Kirchner’s talk did not cover the accidental contamination of food, but instead concerned crimes in the food system and how to combat them. From the time of the ancient Greeks poisons and pathogens have been used as weapons with military or criminal intent. Athenians used plant-based hellebore to poison the wells and water supply of Kirrha. From Spain we had the case of olive oil contaminated with cheap industrial rapeseed oil which killed 600 and left thousands debilitated. Dr Kircher listed the ways people make money out of food fraud or theft and how it exposes us to food safety risks: • Using illegal additives like toxic Sudan Red in chilli powder • Dilution or partial replacement of wines or spirits or the like • Substitution or complete replacement e.g. fish • Fraudulent geographical origin e.g. olive oil, wine • Counterfeit products e.g. Heinz sauce

• Theft and resale, often by the truck or container load • Intentionally selling sub-specification products A new phenomenon has appeared: attacks on food industry computer systems for nefarious reasons. Fortunately, big data can be turned against criminals, so it works both ways. Food safety, food standards Dr Tim Jackson is VP Food Safety, Regulatory and Social Compliance at Driscolls in the USA, and was previously with Nestle. He gave many examples of food poisoning outbreaks and showed that the relatively new microbiology tool, Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is helping to trace and control the organisms responsible for human illness. This technique was hardly on the radar in 2014, but has exploded since then in the USA and there was even a WGS conference in New Zealand this October. Dr Jackson is concerned about the lack of harmonisation of food standards around the world and as an example showed several slides of Maximum Residue Limits for various pesticides and herbicides. The limits between countries vary by several orders of magnitude in some cases, and are a barrier to trade. Fixing problems like this is complicated by the number of large international bodies involved. He gave an interesting account of how to create a strong food safety culture within a company. Through internal leadership, development of competence, and employee involvement, companies can take ownership of their food safety responsibilities. Food contaminants Dr Steve Hathaway, Chief Scientist, New Zealand Food Safety, spoke about dealing with a lot of emerging issues like microplastics in food, newly discovered chemical contaminants in food, new microbial threats, defending New Zealand’s IP in manuka honey, a change to risk-based meat inspection, and antibiotic resistance. In these fields New Zealand is grappling with the priorities, collecting scientific evidence and reviewing current regulations. Communication with consumers is critical Dr John Roche, Chief Science Advisor MPI, illustrated the importance of communication to get the truth to consumers in an age where social media and emotive language make this difficult. He made the point that media are so focussed on bad news, that a crisis has to become a “serious crisis” to achieve cut-through. The meat and dairy industries are under attack from well-meaning, but often ill-informed lobbyists. He showed a variety of ways where a message can be misunderstood or not get through. Science-deniers are an important group, and are responsible for anti-vax, anti-GM, anti-fluoride, anti-chlorine, anti-1080 and similar beliefs that are difficult to deal with. Educating consumers is not the answer. We must tell our “good news” stories, we must engage, be humble and empathetic. Philip Houlding, Director, International Policy, MPI provided several interesting facts:

Dr Nick Roskruge, Associate Professor of Horticulture at Massey University: “Whakawhanaungatanga (relationships) are the key to getting buy-in and outputs from partnerships”

Mike Lee, founder of The Future Market: “Nobody gets out of bed for a 4 out of 10 experience”

• Food production contributes 23 – 37% of global warming gas emissions • Non-tariff barriers to trade takes approximately $9 billion from NZ exports • NZ produces more food per capita than any other country (Denmark is second) Future Markets A breath of brash New York fresh air blew in with Mike Lee’s talk on the Future Market. He dealt more with food markets and product development with only occasional reference to food safety. He showed there is a move away from “one size fits all” food. Food companies in the US are prepared to target smaller niches and consumers are able to choose from a wider range of foods. Impossible Burger realised it was not necessary to exactly match a beef burger with their plant-based offering. They expertly managed the launch, with Impossible Burger 1.0 quickly followed by a much better 2.0. Mike believes that beef burgers, plant based burgers and those made from cultured meat will all coexist in future, with a bright and continuing future for beef. He also predicts the rise of customised food based on nutrigenomics, proteomics and lipidomics, but they will need to taste great. “Nobody gets out of bed for a 4 out of 10 experience”. Perhaps his most memorable comment about Food Safety is that it’s like the bass player in a band – nobody notices until the bass player stops playing. John Morgan, Chief Executive, NZ Food Innovation Network, told us about some of the recent successes: • First Light marbled beef is selling well in export markets • Kiwifruit, including the new red variety are selling well • Sunfed Meats “chicken free chicken” is based on pea protein He also discussed Leftfield Innovation. Paraphrasing their website, Dr Amy Kircher is Director of the Food Protection and Defence Institute at the University of Minnesota. Her presentation discussed food fraud, sharing a number of incidents that were initiated primarily for financial gain

they are a group of New Zealand-based innovators with a vision of a sustainable future, whose farmers focus on growing sustainable crops that are better for their land, better for their customers, and create significantly higher returns. More information here: https://www. leftfieldinnovation.co.nz/about Bryan Wilson, DDG of New Zealand Food Safety outlined the 5-year Food Safety Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan

Panel discussion The final session was a panel discussion hosted by Kelli Brett, editor Cuisine magazine, with Sue Chetwin, Consumer NZ, Ray McVinnie, chef and food writer, John Hart from Future Food and Neil Smith representing the meat industry. John Hart made the point that consumers don’t regard insect-based foods as a food safety risk, and urged us to try the free samples in the lobby. Sue Chetwin was concerned that many of our foods are misleadingly labelled, with superfoods a dime a dozen. In other cases the source of a food is not declared or misrepresented. Consumers want country of origin labelling on foods, and want some enforcement to catch cheats. Ray McVinnie advocated for foods that are sustainably produced, ethically sourced and labelled, and healthy options. His quote of the day was “There is no cheap food – you’ll pay for it sooner or later.” Neil Smith echoed some of the other speakers in saying that the meat industry in New Zealand had been unfairly targeted over the ecological cost of producing meat. He believes that our grass-fed animals are humanely treated, farm water runoff is being improved and gas emissions can be further reduced from what, compared to our international competitors, is already a low base. Bryan Wilson rounded out the day with concluding remarks and many of the delegates stayed for a networking session to end the day. Overall, a well-attended and successful event.

Geoff Webster MNZIFST, Webster Food Consultants