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<pre>Andrew
Woolworths have their own Vendor Quality Management System which
incorporates HACCP. They accept BFA organic certification; the BFA has
ISO:9002 and AQIS accreditiation.
QA minimum requirements vary from state to state. South Australia has
there own HACCP determined in part by the export market and Victoria
SQF 2000. None are law. Many of the food industry bodies are ISO:9000
accredited and have included a HACCP program.
The RIRDC have an interesting paper on food safety certification
systems, here are some excerpts;
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"HACCP has serious limitations, which have been acknowledged. These are
generally regarded to be comprised of the concerns that (Institute of
Medicine, National Research Council 1998, pp.84-92):
o Ensuring that food is entirely safe may not be cost-effective.
o HACCP systems reduce risk but rarely eliminate it.
o There is a general lack of state and federal coordination in nations
that endorse the use of HACCP.
o There is generally a lack of unified mission amongst the various
agencies involved in food safety.
o There is often an inadequate emphasis on surveillance to ensure the
system is sound.
o Resources for surveillance and research are inadequate.
Without ensuring that sufficient measures are taken and examined, a
HACCP based food safety system can provide false security against food
safety risks."
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"The ANZFA national food safety standards clearly spell out that they do
not apply to primary production. However, because primary producers
primarily supply to wholesalers, processors or packing houses which are
required to conform to these standards, then growers need food safety
management systems in order to allow them market access. Previously SQF
2000 and HACCP were touted by consultants becoming mandatory
requirements for the industry, and many growers were pressured into
becoming certified, only to find that it was not necessary as
legislation was delayed. Contributing to this poor image is the
inconsistency of interpreting the guidelines for HACCP based systems.
There is some confusion as to what these new standards mean when they
refer to ‘HACCP based systems’ being put in place."
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"The major types of food safety risks in Australia according to Michael
Jackson, Director of Environmental Health, WA (1995) are:
• Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables
• Pesticide residues in meat
• Heavy metals (most prevalent are mercury, lead and cadmium)
• Natural toxicants (aflatoxin, mycotoxins)
• Microbial contamination (most commonly caused by cross-contamination
between raw and cooked foods, poor human hygiene and inadequate
attention to temperature control).
Some of these can cause serious and lasting health problems such as
diabetes, kidney or liver failure, or other kinds of tissue damage in
humans (Cerexhe & Ashton 2000). Due to pressures for free trade, many of
these problems have the potential to become global catastrophes for
agricultural producers and processors (see for example Winter 2001)."
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cheers
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