Skip to main content

Simply Safe & Suitable template Food Control Plan and the Food Notice: Food Service and Food Retail Business Food Control Plan templates issued under section 39

Have your say

New Zealand Food Safety invites you to submit feedback on the proposed changes to the:

  • Simply Safe & Suitable template Food Control Plan (FCP)
  • Food Notice: Food Service and Food Retail Business Food Control Plan templates issued under section 39.

This consultation would be of particular interest to food businesses operating under the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP, registration authorities, verifiers, and biltong manufacturers.

A summary of the changes is on this page and full details are in the consultation documents.

You can make submissions between 13 May and 1 June 2025. Submissions close at 11:59pm on 1 June 2025.

Consultation document

Draft Food Notice: Food Service and Food Retail Business Food Control Plan templates issued under section 39 [PDF, 386 KB]

Only the affected parts of Simply Safe & Suitable are provided. Changes to wording are in yellow, except for the addition of the 'Making biltong' card:

Draft Simply Safe & Suitable template Food Control Plan [PDF, 1.2 MB]

Related documents

Current Simply Safe & Suitable template Food Control Plan [PDF, 1.9 MB]

Current Food Notice: Food Service and Food Retail Business Food Control Plan templates issued under section 39 [PDF, 308 KB]

Summary of proposed changes to the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP and the Food Notice [PDF, 280 KB]

Proposed changes to the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP

We're proposing to add the 'Making biltong' card as a specialist card to the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP.

New Zealand Food Safety has developed a biltong procedure that will allow biltong manufacturers to operate under a Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP rather than a custom FCP.

Note: If you are manufacturing and selling biltong outside the scope of the procedure proposed to be added to the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP, you will need to register a custom FCP with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Activities out of scope of this biltong procedure include:

  • whole selling biltong (the 'Making biltong' card will only cover retail sale)
  • manufacturing other dried-meat snacks (for example, droëwors)
  • making biltong from other meat sources not mentioned in the 'Making biltong' card.

Minor amendments are also proposed to other cards in the Simply Safe & Suitable template FCP. These are listed in our summary document.

Proposed changes to the Food Notice

For the Food Notice: Food Service and Food Retail Business Food Control Plan templates issued under section 39, New Zealand Food Safety is proposing to: 

  • remove reference to S39-00001 template FCP as New Zealand Food Safety no longer offers this
  • revoke the existing Schedule 1 which detailed the format of the S39-00001 template FCP
  • change the existing Schedule 2 to Schedule 1 which details the format of the S39-00004 template FCP
  • update the transitional requirements described in Clause 1.4
  • update Table 1 to reflect changes made.

Making your submission

Email your feedback on the proposed changes by 11.59pm on 1 June 2025 to foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz

You can also use our online survey to make a submission.

Online submissions – SurveyMonkey

While we prefer you email or use the online survey, you can post written submissions to:

Food Act template project team
New Zealand Food Safety
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140.

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