International big
cheeses meet in NZ
Our land of milk and cheese produces infinitely more dairy products than 4.3 million New Zealanders can consume.
In fact, more than 90 per cent of the milk and milk products produced here is shipped to overseas markets, making up $11.3 billion in annual export earnings.
The trade in dairy products is heavily reliant on access to overseas markets. New Zealand has played a major role in promoting durable and globally accepted food standards for these traded commodities through its leadership of, and involvement with, the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products (CCMMP) since its first meeting in 1994. The committee is chaired by New Zealand Food Safety Authority’s science director, Steve Hathaway.
The committee was established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), an international standards-setting body set up by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to develop international standards that protect the health of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade.
This month more than 150 delegates from some 40 member countries convened at the CCMMP’s 9th session in Auckland.
Head of New Zealand’s delegation to the CCMMP, New Zealand Food Safety Authority senior programme manager, Ann Hayman, says international standards for dairy products facilitate trade by providing importing and exporting countries with a harmonised agreement on product definitions and requirements.
The standards are developed during a rigorous process which includes input from a wide cross section of Codex members and international non-government organisations.
Ann says international standards provide benchmarks for requirements for food in trade. Without these internationally accepted benchmarks countries are likely to set more restrictive import requirements than may be scientifically justified.
“This may mean exporters have to produce many different variations of similar products to satisfy different markets. Sometimes countries copy other countries’ rules without checking how valid they are and everyone ends up complying with rules that do not necessarily enhance food safety or fair trade practices.”
During its 16 years of existence, the CCMMP has developed some 40 standards covering butter, milk powder, individual cheeses, and casein products. The committee has also successfully established a standard for the use of dairy terms.
“If an importer buys butter, for example, that conforms with the Codex standard they will know it complies with the requirements set out for its description, composition, labelling, hygiene, analytical and sampling methods, permitted food additives, and contaminant limits,” Ann says.
She adds that, from a New Zealand perspective, significant achievements of the CCMMP have been the development of new standards covering a range of milk powders, the revision and simplification of individual cheese standards and the development of a standard for the use of dairy terms.
The New Zealand delegation to the CCMMP consists of three New Zealand Food Safety Authority staff and eight industry representatives. One of these is Fonterra’s regulatory and food assurance manager, Roger Hall. He says having internationally-agreed dairy standards helps the company trade with more than 140 markets globally.
“The review of the dairy standards which started in the 1990s has been very important in modernising them to better take account of new technology developments, remove unnecessary prescription, and focus the standards on essential provisions concerning food safety, consumer protection and essential composition.”
Roger also says the standards help maintain the value for dairy commodities.
“It is very important to the value of Fonterra’s export sales that global standards are set to ensure that dairy commodities made to an appropriate standard are not undercut by lower quality products which do not meet the same standards.”
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