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Proposed amendments to the Animal Products Notice: Official Assurance Requirements

Have your say

New Zealand Food Safety is proposing changes to the Animal Products Notice: Official Assurance Requirements.

The notice specifies requirements for issuing, controlling, and obtaining official assurances for animal material and animal products.

Consultation started on 25 June and will close at 5pm on 9 July 2026.

What's being proposed?

This consultation seeks feedback on a set of focused operational and system-related updates, primarily to support transition to MPI Trade Certification.

The proposed changes include:

  • updates to terminology and definitions
  • amendments to clarify transfer document processes
  • amendments to increase flexibility with import certificates
  • transitional provisions for transition to MPI Trade Certification.

Consultation documents

Proposed draft official assurance requirements consultation paper [PDF, 258 KB]

Draft Animal Products Notice: Official Assurance Requirements 2026 [PDF, 810 KB]

Related document: existing notice

Animal Products Notice: Official Assurance Requirements 2025 [PDF, 495 KB]

Making your submission

Submissions are open on the draft notice until 5pm on 9 July 2026.

MPI encourages you to make submissions electronically. Email your submission to food.assurance@mpi.govt.nz

While we prefer email, you can make your submission in writing and post it to:

Food and Live Animal Assurance Team
Assurance Directorate
New Zealand Food Safety
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140.

What to include

Include the following information in your submission:

  • the title of the consultation document
  • your name and title (if applicable)
  • your organisation's name (if applicable)
  • your address and contact details.

Pointers to help you prepare your submission

  • Where possible, comments should be specific to a particular section in the document.
  • All major sections are numbered. You can use these numbers to link comments to the document.
  • Where possible, provide reasons and data to support comments.
  • We encourage you to use examples to illustrate particular points.

Submissions are public information

Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.

People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.

If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.

Official Information Act 1982 – NZ Legislation