Victorian Auditor-General's Office

2 Regulating agricultural food safety

At a glance

Background

Food safety regulation needs to be underpinned by effective compliance monitoring and enforcement, as well as processes to assess regulatory performance, and to coordinate regulatory activity.

Conclusion

The regulation of agricultural food safety is generally effective, with active, risk-based monitoring of compliance with food safety standards. Improvements are required in some areas, particularly in assessing the performance of the regulators and the impact of regulatory activities.

1 Background

1.1 Victoria’s agricultural food industry

Victoria's agricultural industries produce raw animal and plant-based food products, such as dairy, meat, seafood, eggs and horticultural products. Together, these industries produce food valued at around $9 billion each year, and 26 per cent of the national agricultural production. Over half of Victoria’s contribution is from the dairy, beef and horticulture industries with the state's largest export earner, the dairy industry, providing around 87 per cent of Australia’s dairy exports.

Audit summary

Agricultural food safety involves the primary production and processing of raw agricultural products. This encompasses activities on farms, during transportation, and at the facilities involved in processing and handling raw products.

Food safety risks can arise from poor management practices at any stage of the supply chain, such as poor controls over the use of chemicals and veterinary medicines and problems with facilities, hygiene, temperature control and handling practices of food items.

Agricultural Food Safety

Body
This audit examined how effectively agricultural food safety is regulated in Victoria. It assessed how well the overall assurance framework addresses food safety in primary production and processing, and how effectively compliance with the legislation was regulated. This audit reviewed the activities of the Department of Health, the Department of Primary Industries, PrimeSafe, Dairy Food Safety Victoria, and the Committee of Food Regulators.

Appendix D. Audit Act 1994 section 16—submissions and comments

Introduction

In accordance with section 16A and 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994 a copy of this report, or relevant extracts from the report, was provided to the Department of Health with a request for submissions or comments.

The submissions and comments provided are not subject to audit nor the evidentiary standards required to reach an audit conclusion. Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.

Appendix A. Glossary

Accountability

Responsibility of public sector entities to achieve their objectives, with regard to reliability of financial reporting effectiveness and efficiency of operations, compliance with applicable laws, and reporting to interested parties.

Asset

A resource controlled by an entity as a result of past events, and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity.

5 Internal controls

At a glance

Background

This Part presents the results of our assessment of general internal controls and controls over procurement and information technology security in public hospitals.

Conclusion

Internal controls at public hospitals and controlled entities were adequate for producing reliable, accurate and timely financial reports. Nevertheless, a number of areas for improvement were identified.

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