GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES DECISION ON HOMEKILL ISSUES FOR NEW ANIMAL PRODUCTS ACT

The Minister for Food, Fibre, Biosecurity and Border Control, the Hon John Luxton, today announced how homekill and unregulated animal products are to be handled under the new Animal Products Act. The new Act is being prepared to replace the Meat Act 1981 and will be based on a risk management regime.

Mr Luxton said today, "The homekill issue has been complex as it has required balancing the historical and common practices in rural New Zealand and the need to protect New Zealand's multi million dollar export meat trade. In so far as we can we have tried to get a practical and common sense outcome.

"Provision is to be made for the homekill service industry to continue to provide a butchering and slaughter service to animal owners either on the animal owner's property or the service provider's property. This includes Custom Killing Premises. In the future, all such businesses must be registered and will be required to provide information, such as inventory data, specified by the Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry," said Mr Luxton.

"Such businesses will be prohibited from trading animal product. The only exception to this prohibition will be for farmers so that they can provide employees with homekill product. Hunters and harvesters will be able to continue to have their catch handled (butchered) by such businesses," he said.

Special requirements are to be established for butcher shops that deal in regulated meat and animal product and also handle homekill product. This is to ensure the continued integrity of the regulated system in the future.

Mr Luxton said "Butcher shops will be required to establish risk management programmes under the new Act for their operations. Such programmes must demonstrate how the risks inherent in having homekill product and regulated product processed in the 'dual' business will be managed. They will also be required to demonstrate how homekill product will be prevented from entering the trade and how any product they handle will be prevented from entering the export trade."

Mr Luxton thanked those who made submissions on the issues and acknowledged that many of their views were reflected in the Government's decisions.

A detailed list of the decisions is attached.

Detail of the decisions taken by Government concerning homekill and unregulated animal product is as follows:

- any person who owns an animal may have it slaughtered/butchered on their property or on a service providers property provided the animal product is not traded;

- hunters or harvesters can have their catch butchered by a service provider on the service provider's property;

- trade in animal product that is not 'fit for purpose' is prohibited;

- "trade" is to be defined similarly to the definition of "sale" used in the Food Act 1981;

- the only exception to trade will be to allow a farmer as an owner of animals to provide homekill to an employee. "Farmer" will not be defined but the definition of the required employee/employer relationship would focus on employment in the farming operation;
Homekill services will be allowed subject to the remaining conditions:

homekill operators are to be registered, based on the operator not having a business history involving negligent or wilfully deceptive practices, and to be required to provide information as required by the Director-General of MAF;

- dual trade/homekill businesses are to be limited to retail butcher businesses;

- dual trade/homekill businesses are to be subject to risk management programmes under the new Animal Products Act and will not be able to operate food safety programmes under the Food Act;

- the risk management programmes established by dual trade/homekill businesses are to demonstrate how the risks inherent in having homekill product and regulated product processed in the businesses will be managed, how homekill product will be prevented from entering the trade and how any product handled by the businesses will be prevented from entering the export trade;

- it will be an offence the new Animal Products Act to export product from dual trade/homekill businesses or to knowingly supply product for export; and

MAF costs associated with the ongoing compliance and enforcement monitoring activity of homekill service operations may be recovered.