October 2006
Extract from the Report of the 9th Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee For North America and the South West Pacific, 10-13 October 2006 (See: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/667/al30_32e.pdf ):
Papua New Guinea has a Food Act and is finalising its food regulations and is using Codex standards for this purpose.
Food safety is primarily the responsibility of the national Health Department under the control of the Minister of Health. Within the Department of Health, the Environmental Health Division is headed by a coordinator and staffed by four senior health inspectors, one of whom is responsible for food sanitation and quarantine. The health inspectors throughout the country are technically assisted by these officers. Implementation of food safety activities is carried out at the local and provincial levels by field staff who provide food inspection services. Besides the Department of Health, the Department of Primary Industry assumes responsibility over the production, preservation and marketing of meat and certain food commodities.
Papua New Guinea has a limited food sampling programme because laboratory analytical facilities and trained personnel are lacking. The Central Public Health Laboratory is equipped to carry out only limited food analysis. Hospital laboratories conduct bacteriological tests, but mainly to meet their own needs.
Training in food sanitation and food technology is available at the College of Allied Health Sciences at Madang and the University of Technology at Lae. Upon recruitment, health inspectors receive some form of basic training in food safety and control.
Controls over food are set down in the Pure Food Act, Public Health Act, Restaurant Licensing Act, Sale of Meat Act, Slaughtering Act, Bread Act, Baby Feed Supplies Act and regulations made under these acts. Most of the food laws of Papua New Guinea are adopted from the Australian food laws. Only the central authorities are empowered to enact food safety legislation, but the provincial government may enact certain laws which are not inconsistent with the national laws.
The main provisions contained in the Pure Food Act relate to food adulteration, administration and power to make regulations, food standards, food inspection, specific offences in relation to the purity of food, food labelling and legal proceedings for offences against the Act. Regulations mainly regulate the sanitation of food, handlers, premises, utensils and food packaging. Annex 1 indicates the food safety aspects covered by the food legislation.
The Pure Food Act also contains requirements for food labelling. These include the trade name or description of the food, net weight, measure or volume of the contents and the name and address of the manufacturer or vendor. However, date-marking of food Is not mandatory.
Together with the Pure Food Act and its regulation, the food standards have been formulated to apply to all the various categories of foodstuffs. The food standards prohibit the sale for human consumption of any food that has been irradiated unless the Secretary for Health certifies that the irradiation does not make the food unfit for human consumption.
To monitor the health of food handlers, the Pure Food Act provides for the Secretary of Health to order, if so required, a food handier to undergo a medical examination to ascertain if he is likely to transmit infection.
Notification of foodborne diseases is not legally required, and there is no reporting system to keep records of foodborne infections.
The Department of Health has reviewed the Pure Food Act, its regulations, and other subsidiary food legislation and is considering enacting legislation more appropriate to the current situation.