KDC sets national benchmark following food audit

 

Kaipara District Council (KDC) has achieved another exciting milestone following an Environmental Health accreditation assessment audit by Joint Accreditation Services Australia, New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) which closed with zero non-conformances.
 
Kaipara is the first council to go through the food accreditation programme without any non-conformities. 
The Food Act 2014 requires all territorial authorities who are currently issuing food business registration certificates to be accredited by September 2019. 

Sue Williams, lead auditor for JAS-ANZ, commended KDC on its comprehensive Quality Management System (QMS) and stated KDC has “set a new benchmark across New Zealand”. 

Ms Williams commented on the strength of the Environmental Health team at KDC and the total commitment shown by everyone involved in the QMS. 

In addition MPI wants to use KDC as a reference point for other Councils – to present their systems at the next environmental health conference to share their work with other Councils who are struggling.

The team were able to competently respond to each question raised during the audit and could clearly demonstrate the processes being followed were directly aligned to the QMS.

As a result of the success of the assessment, JAS-ANZ has confirmed it is recommending to MPI that KDC should proceed to accreditation as an authority for Food Control Plans as well as National Programmes 1, 2 and 3. 

“This is an outstanding result for the team, and for Kaipara District Council,” said Fran Mikulicic, general manager Regulatory, Planning and Policy. “Ensuring we’re technically compliant and meeting legislation can be detail heavy and time consuming work, so to get such a glowing report from both JAS-ANZ and MPI is fantastic recognition.”

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