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Proposed update to guidance on further processing (drying and concentration) of non-dairy animal products

Have your say

New Zealand Food Safety invites you to submit feedback on the updated 'Animal products guidance document: Further processing'. 

This consultation would be of particular interest to any operators involved in the secondary processing of non-dairy animal products using drying or concentration processes under the Animal Products Act 1999.

This consultation opened on 15 January 2026 and we are accepting submissions until 5pm on 12 February 2026.

Consultation document

Draft guidance document: Further processing [PDF, 737 KB]

What is included in this consultation

This consultation focuses on updates to:

For the purposes of this consultation, all other sections are excluded. 

About the proposed changes

New Zealand Food Safety is proposing to update the 'Concentration or Drying' section of the 'Animal products guidance document: Further processing'. The purpose of this guidance is to provide practical information for operators on the requirements and best practices for drying non-dairy animal products under the Animal Products Act. 

This draft aims to update the ‘Concentration or Drying’ section to align with current Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) branding, legislation, and technical knowledge. The final revised guidance draft includes updates to existing content and new sections included with information relating to:

  • pathogens that may be resistant to inactivation during drying (for example Salmonella)
  • development and validation of a drying process 
  • implementation of validated procedures.

At the same time, we've updated the legal references and other minor aspects of Chapter 1 of the guidance document.

We welcome feedback to ensure the guidance is technically accurate and practical to support food safety outcomes.  

Making your submission

Email your feedback on the consultation document by 5pm on 12 February 2026 to animal.products@mpi.govt.nz

We encourage you to use the submissions template.

Consultation submissions template [DOCX, 162 KB]

While we prefer email, you can post your submission to:

Further processing guidance document submission
Food risk management – New Zealand Food Safety 
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
New Zealand.

What to include

We would like your feedback on the proposed guidance document, including on the following questions:

  • Is the information easily understandable by operators?
  • Are there any areas where further technical details or guidance are required (for example, for specific drying operations or validation procedures)?
  • Are there any better sources or examples of D-values for the relevant products?

Make sure you also include in your submission:

  • the title of the consultation
  • your name and title
  • your organisation's name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it).

Tips when writing your submission

Where possible, comments should be specific to a particular section in the consultation document.

All major sections are numbered, and these numbers can be used to link comments to the document.

Where possible, provide reasons and data to support your comments.

We encourage the use of 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

MPI business units