Environmental Health Report: Food Safety Challenges in New Zealand

This report critically analyzes food safety in New Zealand, focusing on the driving forces behind foodborne illnesses, the pressures they create, and the resulting state changes, exposures, and effects. It examines the role of the WHO DPSEEA framework in understanding these issues, including the impact of chemical contaminants, population growth, and improper food preparation. The report highlights the efforts of the New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) strategy, local councils, and private companies in addressing these challenges. It also identifies gaps in current policies, such as inadequate consumer education, and offers recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the need for a collaborative approach involving consumers, food handlers, policymakers, and various stakeholders to enhance food safety. The conclusion stresses the significant economic and health impacts of unsafe food and the importance of comprehensive measures across all stages of food production and consumption.

Running Head: FOOD SAFETY 1
Food Safety in New Zealand
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Introduction
Food safety incorporates all the practices undertaken to keep the food consumed safe.
Intake of unsafe foods is a global health concern that is endangering everyone, but young
children, elderly, infants, pregnant women, and those with underlying illness seems to be more
vulnerable. Food should be handled in such a way that during storing, preparing, and handling is
dealt with a lot of care to minimise the chances of people becoming sick of foodborne illnesses.
Enhancing Food safety is a significant concern in New Zealand (NZ0 since there has been a rise
in the cases of foodborne illnesses. They include listeriosis, STEC, yersiniosis, norovirus,
salmonellosis, and campylobacteriosis. Also, over 500 people in New Zealand experience food
poisoning in a day. The presence of potential hazards is making it hard for ensuring the
attainment of assurance of food safety. Sources of risks include physical contaminants,
infectious agents, and the presence of potentially toxic chemicals (Kotsanopoulos &
Arvanitoyannis, 2017). This article aims to critically analyse the driving forces as per the WHO
DPSEEA framework, pressures, state changes, exposures, and effects of inadequate food safety
and also discuss the efforts undertaken to tackle the issue and discuss the suggestion in
addressing the issue of food safety.
Part 1
Foodborne pathogens usually incorporate parasites, viruses, and bacteria. The issue of
inadequate food safety poses a significant health problem for the people of NZ. There exist
several factors that are resulting in the consumption of unsafe food. Addressing the issue of food
safety is difficult because of naturally occurring chemical and microbial potential hazards in food
and also the increase in the production of processed foods that have an increased chance of
physical contamination (Elkhishin, Gooneratne & Hussain, 2017). However, with appropriate

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interventions during distribution and manufacture, most of the hazards linked to food safety, for
instance, physical hazards may be eliminated or prevented. The consumption of unsafe foods
has increased microbial food safety issues. They include campylobacteriosis with NZ recording
more cases as compared to Australia and the United States (30 times higher than the United
States and three times higher than Australia). The estimated economic cost of campylobacteriosis
is $36 million. The high expenditure puts pressure on the government of New Zealand (Jeffs,
Williman, Martin, Brunton & Walls, 2019). Other effects include causing listeriosis, rising cases
of broken teeth, cuts to the tongue and mouth, choking, damaging the gastrointestinal system.
The driving forces for lack of food safety include;
Chemicals from food are the highest food safety concern facing New Zealand.
Chemicals that originate from plants themselves like tutin in New Zealand honey seems to be a
significant concern in causing food contamination. These chemicals affect the health of people
after consumption. For instance, tutin is highly toxic, and when consumed it affects the nervous
system of the human body. Even as little as one teaspoon of tutin is a high risk to the health of a
person. Since the records started in NZ in 1889, many people have been hospitalised, died, or
incapacitated after the consumption of tutin in honey. The tutin honey outbreak that happened in
the Coromandel Peninsula in NZ in March 2008 affected 22 people. These chemicals are hard to
eliminate since they originate naturally from the plants (Beasley, Hood, Anderson, Reeve &
Slaughter, 2018).
An increase in population is another factor that influences food safety in NZ. The
increase in population requires more food to be produced. The rising population of NZ requires
that food production should double. The agri-food requires to overcome specific challenges in
order to increase their production: these incorporate soil degradation, groundwater depletion, loss

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of farmland to urbanisation, and climate stress. Also, the rising population is putting pressure on
the existing food system of NZ (Otsuki, Honda & Ni, 2018). As population increases, producers
are put under pressure to meet the required demand for food. Thus putting more pressure and
constraints on distribution and production channels. The pressure makes the producers produce
substandard foods and hence jeopardising the necessary required food safety. For instance, as the
size of crop yields grow, producers tend to cut corners and also attempt to inflate their line of
production. This results in jeopardising the quality of crop produced and hence hindering food
safety.
Furthermore, as the production of food increases, it puts a strain on natural
resources/factors of production, such as loss of farmland due to groundwater depletion,
urbanisation, and potential flooding. Commodities that tend to mostly decrease in quality include
bakery, beverages, cereals, and savoury snacks; this is because they are directly associated with
producers seeking expansion in production, and hence resulting in negative externalities
(Skogstad, 2017). An increase in population significantly affects people from low socio-
economic class since they have less knowledge regarding food safety and hence are at high risk
of consuming substandard foods. Also, they take substandard foods since they cannot afford
high-quality ones (Sushil, Vandevijvere, Exeter & Swinburn, 2017).
Improper preparation of food is one of the factor that has not been discussed in the WHO
DPSEEA framework. Poor preparation of food is another factor that is resulting in food
contamination. Cooking aspects like reheating and waiting in the heat, undercooking, and
improper cooling account for approximately 44% of foodborne illnesses in NZ. Improper
cooking strategies and inadequate preparation such as those incorporating insufficient
processing, cross-contamination, poor hygiene, and re-use of leftovers account for causing 14%

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of foodborne illnesses. There has also been the inadequate will of people of New Zealand to deal
with unsafe food and hence making it remain a significant concern (Meyer et al., 2017).
Part 2
There are several efforts that have been put forward to help curb the issue of food safety.
The efforts have incorporated measures that involve a collaboration of local and national
government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The New Zealand Food Safety
(NZFS) strategy 2019-2024 has been at the forefront of ensuring the enhancement of food safety
(Ghosh, 2016). NZFS is a business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries. It has played an
essential role in overseeing the general functioning of the whole food safety system. It is
involved in setting regulatory standards that are necessary for every section of the food supply
system. It also undertakes verification in order to ensure the standards are followed and met
continuously. It works in collaboration with the industries to promote a culture that takes into
account food safety, develop food safety guidance, and monitor the safety of foods (Bremer,
2017).
The local councils (territorial authorities) are also an essential partner in ensuring food
safety in the domestically. As co-regulators with NZFS under the food Act 2014, local councils
are involved in providing permission for the operation of local food businesses and ensuring
compliance. Private companies have also assisted in ensuring food safety in New Zealand.
They assist with laboratory and verification services (Bremer, 2019).
There exist gaps in the policy undertaken and enhancing food safety in New Zealand.
One of the gap is inadequate education between the community members regarding the
consumption of unsafe food. The recommendation is that people of NZ (Consumers) require

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adequate education on why and how they can avoid practices that hinder the consumption of safe
food. They should avoid practices like reheating food and undercooking, among others.
Also, the federal government seems to take the lead and primary role in enhancing food
safety. The effectiveness of enhancing food safety for New Zealand is not solely, perhaps not
even primarily the role of the federal government. For recommendations, an effective and
efficient food system much depends on the efforts of food transporters, handlers, retailers,
preparers, suppliers, processors, and producers of officials at federal, state, and local levels as
well as the consumers who are involved in food preparation. For instance, consumers and food
handlers should adequately know the food they use through making an informed choice, reading
labels contained on the food package, and becoming familiar with common food hazards. Also,
they should safely grow vegetables and fruits in order to reduce microbial contamination.
Policymakers, on the other hand, should be involved in building and maintaining suitable
infrastructures like laboratories and food systems to manage and respond to food safety risks
along the food chain incorporating emergency time. They should also integrate food safety into
broader programmes and policies, for instance, food security and nutrition (Bamgboje-Ayodele,
Ellis & Turner, 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, unsafe food is a significant concern in New Zealand. Unsafe food contains
harmful chemical substances, bacteria, parasites, or viruses. Approximately 500 people in a day
in New Zealand are affected due to the consumption of unsafe food. The effects of consumption
of unsafe food are a significant concern posing a tremendous economic effect. It also affects
human health by causing foodborne illnesses. They include listeriosis, STEC, yersiniosis,
norovirus, salmonellosis, and campylobacteriosis. Food safety should be enhanced in all sections

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of food production, including production, distribution, packaging, and consumption. The
government of New Zealand has collaborated with various stakeholders like private companies
and local councils to help address the issue of unsafe food. But effective and efficient measures
require that all stakeholders like suppliers, producers, processors, and transporters should be
involved. Also, since consumers are the key players, they should have adequate knowledge
regarding food safety.

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