Food Safety

There are a wide variety of food premises and food producers in the Waimakariri District. This page will provide you with information on the role of the Council's Environmental Health Officers, tips for improving food safety and information on the licensing and control of honey sales as well as the regulation of meat stalls.

• Environmental Health Officers
• Tips for Improving Food Safety
• Cleaning Schedule Charts
• Licensing and Control of Honey Sales
• Regulation of Meat Stalls

Environmental Health Officers

The Council's Environmental Health Officers regularly inspect the District's food premises to ensure they follow hygienic food preparation and handling practices. They can also provide advice on food safety and hygiene regulations, to ensure that food is delivered to customers safely and hygienically.

If you are new to the food industry or looking to set up a food business in our District, our Environmental Health Officers can help you with all you will need to know about opening a new food premises. The Council uses proven methods when inspecting the state and maintenance of food premises, food handling and storage practices, cleanliness and staff training.

Tips for Improving Food Safety

There are simple practices that any food operator can adopt to improve food safety:

• Use separate chopping boards for raw and cooked foods and adequately clean them to prevent cross-contamination.
• Properly cover food in fridges to prevent contamination. Be especially careful to ensure juice from raw meat doesn't spill onto cold meats, cheese and vegetables.
• Keep fridge temperatures at a maximum temperature of 4^o Celsius to stop bacteria from flourishing.
• Store hot food at temperatures over 60^o Celsius.

Cleaning Schedule Charts

Our Environmental Health Officers can provide food operators with cleaning schedule charts. These detail the advantages of having a cleaning schedule, what a schedule should include, cleaning frequencies and examples of cleaning schedule charts. 

• Cleaning Schedule Charts (pdf, 146 kB). 

Licensing and Control of Honey Sales

Honey for sale must be extracted and packed in a premises that is either:

• Registered under 'The Food Hygiene Regulations 1974', or
• Has an approved 'Risk Management Programme' required under the Animal Products Act 1999.

All honey sold must be labelled in accordance with the Australian New Zealand Food Standard Code. If honey is to be sold at stalls and farmers style markets a licence must first be obtained. 

Regulation of Meat Stalls

Food Hygiene Regulation 46(4) prohibits the sale of meat from a stall except for canned meat, cooked meat, pre-packed poultry, sausages, cured ham or cured bacon. Cuts of raw meat (beef, lamb, venison, pork etc.) cannot be sold from a stall.

The only way a business can legally sell raw meat from a stall is to become exempt from the Food Hygiene Regulations and operate a Food Safety Programme (FSP).

Meat at Stalls Food Safety Programme

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has developed a 'Meat at Stalls Food Safety Programme' which is a template to help businesses register their FSP. This is for businesses that sell pre-packaged raw, processed and ready-to-eat meat from stalls. Cutting or processing of meat is not covered by a Food Safety Programme.

The FSP also lets businesses that sell raw meat to also sell other meats (e.g. canned meat, cooked meat, pre-packed poultry, sausages, cured ham or cured bacon). This means the business doesn't need to register their stall twice - under the Food Hygiene Regulations and the FSP.

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