Monitoring importers of specified high-risk foods
20 February 2024: The Ministry for Primary Industries doesn’t know how effective the safety system is for importing high-risk food. The Ministry has not been consistently monitoring whether importers are establishing the safety and suitability of high-risk food before it arrives in the country.
How and why we did this work
Between 2022 and 2023, 39 New Zealanders had Hepatitis A attributed to imported frozen berries. Consumers expect the food they buy to be safe and the amount of food we import is steadily increasing.
The food import system
The food safety system relies on importers making sure food is safe before it arrives in New Zealand. The Ministry for Primary Industries is supposed to check that importers are doing this.
What needs to improve
The Ministry for Primary Industries is not monitoring the importers of high-risk foods closely enough to know whether importers are complying with requirements.
