Australia must not become complacent in its thinking about emerging threats to food safety despite an excellent track record, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Trish Worth, warned last week.

Ms Worth, speaking at the 2nd Fellows Symposium of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) in Canberra, said new food safety issues had been identified that needed to be tackled.

The key areas she identified include: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies (BSE) in cattle (also known as mad cow disease), chemical carcinogens in foods (eg chloropropanols and possibly acrylamide), the growing propensity of manufacturers to add non-culinary herbs and other complementary medicines to foods, increasing levels of allergies in our population (particularly in children), and the growing level of overweight and obesity.

"A relatively small body like FSANZ cannot - and should not - address these issues alone," Ms Worth said.

"I am pleased that continuing work is being done by FSANZ to develop its relations with counterpart overseas regulators and with international bodies such as the World Health Organisation.

The continuing emergence of threats to the safety of the food supply also underlines the importance of the FSANZ Fellows program."

Ms Worth said the FSANZ Fellows is comprised of representatives from Australia and New Zealand, distinguished in areas of science and other disciplines, who provide advice and assistance to the FSANZ Board and staff.

Ten fellows were appointed in 2000 for a term of three years. A further four have recently been appointed by the FSANZ Board. At the same time, Ms Worth also welcomed the imminent transition, on 20 December, to the 'Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code' as a harmonised set of food standards for Australia and New Zealand, which aims to provide substantial improvements over the existing regulations.

"The wide-scale removal of unnecessary prescriptive requirements provides much greater flexibility and capacity for innovation in the food industry," Ms Worth added.

"The new standards include major labelling initiatives which will give consumers an unprecedented amount of information about their foods to allow them to choose healthier diets and to make better informed food choices," she concluded.