14 December 2016
This Biosecurity Advice invites stakeholders to provide comments by 13 February 2017 on the department’s draft report on its review of the import requirements for fresh (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products from Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United States and Vanuatu.
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources has reviewed import requirements in response to market access requests from the United States, Japan and the Netherlands for the importation of fresh (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products for human consumption.
New Zealand and Vanuatu are included in the review as both have long standing access for fresh beef. The appropriateness of the conditions under which importation occurs has not been reviewed for some time, and as such a review is warranted.
Prior to the commencement of the review, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) had assessed the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) food safety risk of the applicant countries; the United States, Japan and the Netherlands as Category 1 BSE food safety risk status, which means they are already able to export heat-treated, shelf-stable beef and beef products to Australia. New Zealand and Vanuatu are also Category 1 status countries.
The scope of the review includes fresh (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products as meat, bone and offal of cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus), buffalo (Bubalus bubalis i.e. water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo) and bison (American bison, Bison bison).
The review takes into account current scientific information, international standards developed by the World Organisation for Animal Health, as well as policies adopted by other countries for the importation of these products. It identified and categorised hazards of biosecurity concern, other than BSE, associated with the importation of fresh (chilled or frozen) beef and beef products for human consumption. Risk assessments of disease agents was undertaken as required.
Comments on the draft report should be submitted by 13 February 2017.
This Biosecurity Advice and the draft report is available via the department’s website.
All submissions received on the draft review will be carefully considered by Animal Biosecurity in finalising the review of existing policy.
Please pass this notice to other interested parties. If those parties wish to be included in future communications on this matter they should contact Animal Biosecurity.
Lodging a submission: There is no specific format for a submission, but they must be in writing, and identify the relevant technical biosecurity issues being raised with supporting evidence. Preferably, submissions should be in Microsoft Word or other text-based formats and lodged electronically via email, but postal submissions are acceptable. Submissions should be received by the department within the stated comment period and addressed to:
Animal Biosecurity
Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
GPO Box 858
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA
Telephone: +61 2 6272 4465
Facsimile: +61 2 6272 3856
Email: Animal Biosecurity
Privacy: Personal information collected by the department will only be used to enable the department to contact you about your submission and may be disclosed to specialists, another Commonwealth government agency, a State or Territory government agency or foreign government department, provided the disclosure is consistent with relevant laws, in particular the Privacy Act 1988.
The department requests that, as a minimum, you provide your name and contact details with your submission. Please indicate if you do not wish to have personal information published with your submission or disclosed to third parties. Collected personal information will be used and stored consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles as outlined in the department’s Privacy Policy available on the department’s website.
Confidentiality: Subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 1988, content of submissions may be made public, unless you state you want all or part of your submission to be treated as confidential. A claim for confidentiality must be justified and provided as an attachment, marked ‘Confidential’. ‘Confidential’ material will not be made public. The department reserves the right not to publish submissions.
No breach of confidence will occur if the department shares your submission with a third party referred to under ‘Privacy’ in seeking advice in response to your submission.
Intellectual property: Responsibility for compliance with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in submissions rests with the author(s). In lodging a submission, you warrant you have not knowingly infringed any third party IPR. By lodging a submission, you grant the Commonwealth a permanent, irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide, non-exclusive licence to use, copy, reproduce, adapt, communicate and exploit all or any of the material contained in the submission.
Dr Andrew Cupit
Assistant Secretary
Animal Biosecurity