Dar seafood ppp standard

4.3 A new approach to food safety

In this environment, the effectiveness of the existing food safety management systems needs to be examined and strategies identified to further improve food safety management. Traditional food safety systems have tended to focus on testing food at the end of the food chain, often after an outbreak of food-borne illness or an incident has been reported. While this approach assists prosecution of offending parties, it rarely prevents food-borne illness.

The more recently introduced HACCP approach to food safety offers a preventive approach to food safety, but does not approach the management of food safety from a priority perspective, i.e. it makes little distinction between controlling hazards that translate into significant risks to public health as opposed to hazards that lead to a relatively low risk to public health. The HACCP system is relatively costly to implement, and in an environment of limited resources, may not be cost-effective for all food sectors or activities.
The Ministerial Council has recognised the need for Australia to develop a new approach to managing food-borne risks to human health. This approach includes a nationally consistent, whole-of-chain food safety management system that is preventive in nature, focuses on food safety outcomes rather than prescriptive requirements and identifies management systems that are commensurate with public health risks.
A nationally consistent, preventive approach has recently been adopted in Chapter 3 of the Code, specifying baseline food safety provisions for the hygienic production of food in the manufacturing and retail sectors. Chapter 3 also sets out voluntary provisions for food safety programs.

As identified earlier, the Ministerial Council recently agreed that food safety programs should become mandatory for certain food sectors identified as posing a higher risk to public health, where food safety programs would be cost-effective.

However, the provisions in Chapter 3 do not apply to the primary production end of the food chain. For many industry sectors and activities, hazards introduced at the primary end of the food chain may not be able to be managed effectively further up the food chain, resulting in public health incidents. The effective management of hazards of public health significance at the primary end of the food chain makes the task of managing hazards in the later part of the food chain easier and more effective, resulting in safer food and improved public health outcomes.
Section 3.5 highlighted the inconsistent approaches being taken at the primary production end of the seafood supply chain in Australia. These gaps in the coverage of current regulation and industry compliance with voluntary management systems may have implications in terms of public health and safety. This will need to be considered in light of the inherent public health and safety risks presented by seafood and the current strategies used to minimise these risks.