Federated Farmers - April 2011

Butchers Blurb

A newsletter from Federated Farmers Rural Butchers

Chairperson's commentary

MIKE HANSON - CHAIRPERSON FEDERATED FARMERS RURAL BUTCHERS

The recent tragic earthquake in Christchurch has shown us the transient nature of life and reinforced for us all the vital importance of relationships. The most important relationships are of course with family and friends and I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of Federated Farmers Rural Butchers, to express my sympathy to all who have lost loved ones or whose lives have been disrupted by this event.

As is mentioned in the body of the newsletter, the Compliance and Inspection Group (CIG) of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) - now part of MAF - has recently a review of the Homekill/Recreational and Dual Operator Butcher sectors of the food industry, as part of their responsibility to monitor how well the industry is performing and the effectiveness with which our food safety risks are being managed by the sector.

In addition, the Verification Agency (VA) section of NZFSA has, over recent months signalled a change in approach to the way in which they manage identified defects, particularly where the problems have previously been identified but not remedied by business owners.

Both these actions are likely to impact on the regulatory landscape of the homekill and dual operator butcher sectors and so have the have the potential to affect your businesses. Rest assured that myself, the other members of the Executive and the Federated Farmers organisation will be doing our best to ensure that any regulatory changes made are appropriate and advantage - rather than disadvantage - members. To this end, myself, Craig Merritt and John Shannon have already met with MAF in Wellington in Februaryto address some issues. The outcomes from the meeting are covered elsewhere in the newsletter. We have also been involved in several instances of helping members work through issues with the authorities.

When the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) Bill currently before Parliament is added to the mix and we also continue to work to increase our Rural Butcher member numbers, I expect 2011 to be a busy year for myself and the other members of the Executive.

I hope to see a good number of you at our conference in Invercargill in September - there is a lot for us to do.

Mike Hanson
Chairperson
Federated Farmers Rural Butchers
Phone: 03 308 7354
Email: netherbymeats@xtra.co.nz

News

2011 RURAL BUTCHERS CONFERENCE AND AGM

The 2011 AGM and Conference will be held in Invercargill on Saturday, 3 September at the Ascot Park Hotel. There will also be some pre-conference activities around this event on Friday, 2 September. The Agenda, listing the speakers and details of the pre-conference field trip/s, will be developed closer to the event and sent out to you when finalised.

This advance information is provided much earlier than usual so those members who wish to can book their travel to the conference well before the event.

The Federation has reserved a number of rooms at the hotel and motel venue for the nights of Friday 2 and Saturday 3 September. There are also a smaller number of rooms reserved for the nights around this: Thursday 1 and Sunday 4 September. Members who wish to attend the event and stay at the conference location will need to let the Federation know so we can confirm the numbers of rooms required. You can provide this information when the Registration Form for the event is sent out.

If you have any queries, please contact Federated Farmers Rural Butchers Policy Advisor, David Burt,

E-mail: dburt@fedfarm.org.nz Telephone: 04 494 9182 or 0800 327 646, Fax 04 4731081

ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION AND TRACING – NAIT OBLIGATIONS

The legislation that will give the National Animal Identification and Tracing [NAIT] scheme regulatory authority is currently before Parliament. Federated Farmers has submitted on the Bill and the submission will be available on the Federation's website once we have appeared before the Primary Production Select Committee to speak in support of our submission.

Draft regulations are still to be published and these will provide much of the detail required about what (and how) people who have obligations under this legislation will need to do to comply. The Federation will be consulting with members about this when the draft regulations are released for public consultation.

NAIT is concerned with matching identified (ie NAIT tagged with a unique identifying number) cattle and farmed deer with specific locations - such as a farm. All movements of NAIT registered live animals to other locations need to be notified to NAIT. While animal owners, such as farmer members will be primarily affected, it is worth noting that, once NAIT becomes operational, some homekill operators and dual operator butchers will have NAIT obligations that will need to be met. Failure to meet NAIT obligations will incur potentially severe penalties. For Rural Butchers, these obligations will only apply to those that move NAIT animals to another location for slaughter. Rural Butchers who also own cattle or deer will also have additional NAIT obligations as animal owners.

Note that:

When cattle are slaughtered at the owner's farm, the animal owner is responsible for notifying NAIT that the animal is dead so that the NAIT database information about that animal (and its unique tag) can be updated.
Only cattle (from 1 November 20111) and farmed deer (from 1 November 2012) will be part of the NAIT scheme. The killing of other animals (eg sheep and pigs) is not affected at this time.

Federated Farmers will be providing information to Rural Butcher members about their obligations once the draft regulations are published. In the interim, if members have questions about NAIT, please contact David Burt.

MAF CIG SECTOR REVIEW ACTIVITIES

As mentioned above, the Compliance Inspection Group (CIG) of MAF have advised that they have recently completed a review a looking at the Dual Operator Butcher and Home Kill sectors. Such reviews are part of their responsibility to monitor how well the industry is performing.

Issues covered in the reviews include:

Determining the level of understanding of the requirements in the Animal Products Act 1999 as it relates to homekill and dual operator butcher operations
To investigate how meat and meat products produced by the sector are being handled
To assess the level of compliance with record keeping requirements.

The exercise is part of a regular programme of assessments that the group undertakes across the food production sector to ensure that the risks - and the measures currently in place to control these risks - presented by the sectors are being managed appropriately.

Members should be aware that the CIG visits are primarily an information gathering exercise and are not audits. Consequently, non-conformances found will, in general, not be passed onto to the NZFSA Verification Agency for further action. The exception to this is where critical deficiencies are found - immediate action will be taken to address such issues and these measures will generally involve the Verification Agency.

The Federation expects to hear the results of the review and due course and will pass the overall results and the issues found (no people or premises will be identified in the report) on to members when it becomes available.

MAF VERIFICATION ANIMAL AND FOOD PRODUCTS (VAFP) ACTIVITIES

The Executive has become aware, over recent months of concerns that the approach to verification audits, of Dual Operator Butcher premises, by the VAFP group - previously (before their merger with MAF) known as the NZFSA Verification Agency (NZFSA VA) - may have changed. Some members are concerned that the approach taken by VAFP to the management of identified defects/non-conformances has materially altered and has got much tougher, to the detriment of members trying to earn a living.

In order to address this issue Rural Butchers requested a meeting with NZFSA to discuss our concerns. The meeting took place in February which Mike Hanson, Craig Merritt and John Shannon attended. MAF reiterated that there has been no change to the way that their staff interpret the standards.

While the vast majority of DOB members understand and meet the conditions of their premise RMP's, verifiers are finding that a small number of operators continue to have some problems typically in areas such as cleaning and sanitation, repairs and sanitation and record keeping. What has changed is that, where such issues are identified during audits, verifiers are now advising operators of the need to take corrective actions (including setting and keeping to the agreed timeframes) in respect of these problems - and the consequences for the business of not making the required improvements.

Members should note that if they are unhappy with the outcome of an audit by VAFP, then there are provisions to appeal the decision. In addition, members of the Rural Butchers Executive can usually be called upon for advice should problems develop.

Federated Farmers Rural Butchers will continue to work with VAFP and other regulatory bodies to ensure that compliance measures - and costs - are minimised so that members can focus on what they do best - producing safe food for their customers.

The table below lists the compulsory record keeping requirements for Dual Operator Butchers is attached for your information and is based on the RMP requirements that can be found on the NZFSA website.

RMP Template Attachment	Attachment Topic	Records which are required to be kept (as per section 4 in each attachment of the RMP)
A	Design, Construction and maintenance of facilities and equipment	Any alterations, repairs or problems detected Any corrective action taken
B	Pest Control	Records of pesticide use Location of bait stations Any corrective action taken
C	Chemical control	A list of approved chemicals used on premises (e.g. list, or receipts, delivery dockets, invoices etc) Any problems detected and corrective actions
D	Personnel health and hygiene	Records regarding any food handler illness Induction/training records Any problems detected and corrective actions taken.
E	Cleaning / housekeeping	Any problems that are detected- e.g. at pre-operative cleaning checks and; Any corrective action taken
F	Water - All supplies	Any completed assessment of water supply status checklists Any water treatment applied Observations from monitoring Any water testing results Any corrective action taken
F1	Water - Own supply
F2	Water - Treated (own or independent supply)
G	Purchase, handling and storage of non-meat ingredients and processing aids	Records of purchase of goods (e.g. receipts, delivery dockets, invoices). Any problems detected Any corrective action taken
H	Product contact packaging	Evidence provided by suppliers under sections 3.1of Attachment H of the template Any problems detected Any corrective actions taken
I	Traceability / inventory / labelling	Records showing goods received, e.g. delivery dockets, invoices, diary Any problems Any corrective actions
J	Corrective action	Any corrective action taken Any reports given to the accredited verifier.
K	Recall procedure	Load-out dockets or invoices for wholesale goods Diary detailing all communication about the recall and copies of all written correspondence Details of any product recovered and its disposition Recall review notes
L	Operator verification and external verification	Any information or evidence relating to operator verification activities Copies of any emails or letters sent to NZFSA or the recognised RMP verifying agency Any problems Any corrective action taken
M	Document control	Obsolete documents and document lists are filed.
N	Record control	All those records identified throughout the RMP.
O	Calibration	Calibration certificates and other calibration records. Any problems Any corrective action taken
P	Process control	Monitoring of control measures and corrective actions at each critical step Any problems detected Any other corrective action taken Cooking- record the internal product temperature of at least one product (usually the biggest product as it takes longer to cook) and also the time held at that temperature. Cooling- If the cooling process has been validated, then record the time when cooling starts and the temperature of the chiller. Meat displays and chillers- check display temperatures at least in morning and afternoon and chillers/freezers regularly throughout the day. Record any issues and their corrective actions.
S	Unique risks from homekill	Records of regulated product and homekill or recreational catch received and processed. For Homekill- date received and when it went back to customer Name, address and phone number of animal owner Description of incoming product- species, quantity etc and what was delivered back to customer (and who received it)
T	Separation of unregulated and regulated meat	A detailed description of what is required is detailed in Attachment T of the template.

You may find that in your operation it may benefit to make additional records for activities such as pre-operative cleaning checks or ingredient check sheets. Talk to your verifier if you decide to change the way in which you make your records as they may have useful advice and resources that you can use.

For those members that require more information, please feel free to contact David Burt. Alternatively, NZFSA have a revamped web site, where information about Dual Operator Butchers can be found, click here for the website.

MAF BIOSECURITY NEW ZEALAND NEWS

Hydatid vigilance needed - While Hydatids has essentially been eradicated from New Zealand, it is important that farmers remain vigilant to ensure that this situation continues. As a reminder, MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) has reissued a Controlled Area Notice stating that raw offal from all livestock, including sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, deer, horses, llamas and alpacas, kept for use or profit shall not be accessible by dogs. The requirements of the Notice can be downloaded by clicking here. For further information, please contact policy advisor, David Burt, by calling 0800 327 646.

Notices

FOR SALE

Any plant machinery that is for sale or wanted can be included in our next newsletter. Please forward relevant details to the Federated Farmers Rural Butchers secretary, Sommai Hudson, by clicking here.

FOODPRO 2011 EVENT

This event - a major trade event for the food and beverage industry - will be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition and Centre from Sunday 10 July - Wednesday 13 July. Click here to find out more information about the event. It is likely that some members will be attending this event. if you are interested, contact the Rural Butchers Chairperson , Mike Hanson on 027 269 4133 or by email netherbymeats@xtra.co.nz

NEW MEMBERS WANTED

Your membership is important as you give us the means and mandate to make a difference for farmers and rural businesses. Share your experience of Federated Farmers with others in the rural community and let them know what the benefits of belonging to Federated Farmers Rural Butchers are. If you know of any rural butchers who aren't Federated Farmers members you may wish to give them a call. Alternatively, pass on their contact details to David Burt and he will ensure that they are contacted. Thank you for your support and membership, it makes an important difference.

MORE MEMBER BENEFITS AND OFFERS

To view special discounts exclusive to Federated Farmers members, please call 0800 327 646 or click here to log onto our members only area.

Our shop

NEED STAFF?

If you need staff or are looking for a job, visit www.ruraljobs.co.nz

NEED A CONTRACT?

If you need a contract or free legal or employment advice, simply call 0800 327 646.

CONTRACTS, AGREEMENTS AND LEASES

These include land, stock, contractor, sales and purchase, agreement to grow, log books, access pads, Over Dimension Certificates and employment. Remember, it's a legal requirement to have an employment contract for EVERY employee so if you don't have a current employment agreement, then order one now. Contracts, agreements and leases are available in both electronic and hard copy formats for your convenience. To purchase, call 0800 FARMING or click here.

Contacts

Please remember that if there are any issues you would like to discuss contact Federated Farmers on 0800 327 646, contact your local chairperson or one of the executive team as listed below.