Conference to focus on meat and poultry safety

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

An international conference on hygiene standards and safety for meat and poultry is on in Wellington this week.

The first meeting of the Codex Committee on Meat and Poultry Hygiene to be held since 1993 will be chaired by Dr Andrew McKenzie, group director of the Food Assurance Authority at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The committee is part of the Codex Alimentarus Commission - an international agency set up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation.

About 140 international Government and industry representatives will discuss the latest thinking on risk management in the production of meat. Codex aims to protect the health of consumers and promote fair practices in the food trade by setting international food standards for commodities such as fruit, fish, meat and dairy production as well as guidelines for related processes.

Dr McKenzie said the conference aimed to review the existing codes of practice for meat processing. Benefits from adopting Codex principles include simplifying exports by doing away with replication of compliance processes for globally trading countries, he said.

New Zealand will host another Codex committee meeting in April on milk and milk products.