Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Kedgley Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:611;Page:8117] 
9.  
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Food Safety 
: Can she tell New Zealand parents the names of the four unidentified infant formulae that tested positive for genetically modified soy in the recent New Zealand Food Safety Authority report on food produced using gene technology; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister for Food Safety) 
: 
 I do not have the names of those products. The review was one of the routine audits carried out by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority and as the genetic modification (GM) found was approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and was also well below the 1 percent threshold that is provided in the standard relating to GM labelling for unintentional presence the products did not break the law. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Surely parents feeding their babies soy infant formula have a right to know whether their infant formula contains unlabelled genetically engineered (GE) soy especially as GE soy has never been tested on humans or tested for its long-term health effects? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The food standard that is in place is to do with labelling. It is not to do with safety. There are no GM products in New Zealand that have not been approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What action does the New Zealand Food Safety Authority take regarding compliance failure? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The action it takes is to identify what products do not comply. In the recent review it found that only two products of the 117 tested did not comply. Both of them were actually making a GE-free claim. One of these was a tofu vegetarian sausage sold in an organic shop and the other was a smoked sausage which was also claimed to be GE free. Both cases have been referred to the Commerce Commission for consideration under the Fair Trading Act. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Does she agree that the findings of the food safety audit that more than half the importers and manufacturers who were surveyed did not have current information on the GE status of their food and that 68 percent of importers did not even have verification systems in place to confirm the GE status of food suggest that the GE food labelling system is a shambles and what is she doing to fix it? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I have told that member but she apparently has not heard that part of the food-labelling regime put in place by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in 2000 was to review it after 3 years. The review was announced in August. I know that the member got a copy of the press release and probably the terms of reference. That labelling regime is now being reviewed. It was the first of its type in the world. We are now looking to see whether we need to change it to bring it into line with any other labelling regimes in other parts of the world. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Is the Minister planning to further review the regulations relating to food safety and other ingested substances in order to ascertain whether the ingestion of alcohol or food of a particular sort at a dinner with the Hon Richard Prebble last night was responsible for the headaches that Bill English has today? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No. The member will stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: And now he will leave the Chamber. 
Hon Trevor Mallard withdrew from the Chamber. 
Sue Kedgley 
: If more than half the importers and manufacturers in New Zealand do not have current information on the GE status of their foods or do not have verification systems in place how can we be sure that our foods are correctly labelled with regard to GE; and why on earth is the food safety agency budget for monitoring GM food being slashed by more than two-thirds in this financial year and how will the Minister ensure compliance when the budget is $50000? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: We have for the first time put in place surveillance and monitoring of the GM labelling regime. That is why we have just carried out an audit. That is how we can tell whether foods do comply. They have a spot check. There are some mandatory checks. That was never done in New Zealand although we have had food with GM product in it for around 10 years.