Imported Food Control Amendment Bill 2017 (Cth)

“The Imported Food Control Amendment Bill 2017 (the Bill) will amend the Imported Food Control Act 1992 (the Act). The amendments will strengthen the current risk-based management approach of imported food safety to better protect the health of consumers while reducing the regulatory burden for compliant food importers. The Bill supports Australia’s international obligations, including under the World Health Organization International Health Regulations 2005 and the World Trade Organization Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 1994 (The SPS Agreement)” (Explanatory Memorandum, p 1).

 “Australia has a world-class food safety management system. Our exported food is highly sought after internationally due to our world-class food safety reputation. This benefits our farmers, our economy, and our nation as a leading exporter of high quality safe food. It is essential that we ensure food being brought into Australia is safe. As globalisation changes how food is traded around the world, we need to strengthen our laws to meet the changing landscape” (Second Reading Speech).

"The changes strengthen our imported food inspection, giving the government greater power to hold food at the border if there are reasonable grounds to suspect it possesses a serious risk to human health,

"This will also boost the government's response and management arrangements for imported food safety risks.

"These enhanced powers address limitations to current laws such as lack of flexibility for identifying and responding to risks, highlighted through the 2015 response to the hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen berries.

"The changes put greater onus on importers to ensure the food they bring into our country is safe, and that they have internationally recognised food safety controls in place throughout the supply chain.

"The strengthened laws also take into consideration the food safety and regulatory systems in exporting countries and introduce stronger traceability requirements.

"Australia is the proud exporter of premium, clean and safe food that meets the very high standards set by our international trading partners.

"Aussie consumers must have the same level of assurance if they choose to buy imported food at local supermarkets or the corner store.

"We need to provide this assurance without burdening local importers with unnecessary red tape or consumers with price increases or reduced choice.

"While our food regulatory system is a proven, robust system with processes to manage and respond to detections of unsafe food, we are building on its strengths and addressing its limitations."

• require documentary evidence from importers to demonstrate that they have effective internationally recognised food safety controls in place throughout the supply chain for the types of food where at-border testing alone is insufficient to provide assurance of food safety;
• broaden Australia’s emergency powers to allow food to be held at the border where there is uncertainty about the safety of a particular food and where the scientific approach to verify its safety is not established;
• provide additional powers to monitor and manage new and emerging risks;
• recognise an entire foreign country’s food safety regulatory system where it is equivalent to Australia’s food safety system, which will facilitate less intervention at the border for food products from that country;
• align the definition of food with other Commonwealth legislation;
• establish differentiated enforcement provisions to enable a graduated approach to non-compliance;
• require all importers of food to be able to trace food one step forward and one step backward;
• address minor technical issues with the current legislation to ensure efficient administration of the imported food legislation.