Rob Knowles, the former Victorian Health Minister, is to be chairman of the inaugural Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) board, it was announced today [Thursday] by Trish Worth, the parliamentary secretary to the minister for health and ageing.
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The appointment of Knowles and other Australian board members was agreed to by Commonwealth, State, Territory and NZ food standards ministers. NZ board representatives were nominated by the New Zealand government.
“FSANZ is a new statutory Authority that will replace the existing Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA),” Worth said: “[It] will have a board with broader areas of expertise than ANZFA.
“The prime function of FSANZ will be to develop food standards that are to be adopted in Australia and NZ (within the scope of the Treaty between Australia and NZ) and then notify those standards to the new Australia and NZ Food Regulation Ministerial Council.
“These standards are to be developed based on scientific and technical criteria and in accordance with the objectives of the FSANZ Act 1991, dealing with protection of public health and safety and the provision of information to consumers.
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By GlobalData“A new feature of the system is that FSANZ will also develop standards relating to primary production and processing under its normal standards setting process (for Australia only). This means that for the first time we have an organisation setting standards for the whole food chain. Therefore the FSANZ board includes members with expertise in agriculture and primary food production.
