Food Act levies
In June 2024, Cabinet approved the introduction of two new levies under the Food Act 2014.
Food (Fees, Charges, and Levies) Amendment Regulations 2024 – NZ Legislation
The levies fund new and expanded services required to support a robust food safety system, including measures for:
- Robust and modern risk management through improved rule setting, while easing rules that place unreasonable regulatory burden on food businesses;
- Timely and additional advisory and education support for food businesses to meet their regulatory requirements.
- Oversight and coordination of regulatory partners to support a nationally aligned, fair and consistent approach to food businesses that more appropriately reflects the level of risk of individual business operations; and
- Monitoring to provide assurance the system is working well, and also to identify systemic issues that need managing.
Food business levy
The Food Business Levy will come into effect from 1 July 2025, at $57.50 (plus GST), increasing to $86.25 (plus GST) from 1 July 2026, and $115.00 (plus GST) from 1 July 2027.
The Food Business Levy will be payable by all businesses registered under a food control plan or national programme under the Food Act 2014.
- For food businesses registered under a Food Control Plan, the levy will be set on a per-place basis. This is because under the Food Act, an FCP is required to take into account each place the food business trades.
- For food businesses registered under a National Programme, the levy is set on a per business basis.
Levy rates that apply to food businesses
For businesses registered through a territorial authority, the levy will be collected by the territorial authority on behalf of MPI. A collection fee may be added by the territorial authority. For businesses registered with MPI, the levy will be collected by MPI.
|
Year |
Rate (excl GST)* per year |
Rate (incl GST)* per year |
|---|---|---|
|
2025/26 (from 1 July 2025) |
$57.50 |
$66.13 |
|
2026/27 (from 1 July 2026) |
$86.25 |
$99.19 |
|
2027/28 and onwards (from 1 July 2027) |
$115 |
$132.25 |
| * Does not include any collection fee for levies collected by territorial authorities. | ||
Waiver – Partial Waiver of Food Business Levy
A waiver for food businesses with mobile and/or market operations has been enabled.
Exemption, Waiver or Refund: Partial Waiver of Food Business Levy [PDF, 672 KB]
The waiver will come into force from 1 July 2025, aligning with the commencement of the levy.
The waiver enables the levy to be applied more fairly for food businesses with mobile and market operations:
- for a food business with one or more fixed sites in a district, that also has one or more mobile or market places in the same district, the levy will only be charged for the fixed sites, or
- for a business with no fixed site in a district but with one or more mobile or market places in the same district, the levy will only be charged for one mobile or market place, or
- for a food business that operates across multiple districts (and is registered with MPI), the levy is charged as enabled by the above scenarios per district.
The waiver will be automatically applied to invoices by the applicable registration authority.
Food importer levy
The food importer levy must be paid by registered food importers
It will fund the delivery of core services provided by New Zealand Food Safety that directly benefit registered food importing businesses, including:
- developing new and improving existing imported food safety rules and standards, ensuring they are effective, reasonable and easy to understand.
- collating and analysing information on food importers and imported foods to identify areas of non-compliance and opportunities for improvement.
- developing and delivering guidance, education and support for registered food importers, to help them understand rules and standards and improve food safety compliance.
- continued audit and review of how the overall food safety system is performing.
Food importers are the primary users and beneficiaries of these services. Government policy is to recover the cost of this work directly from registered food importers.
Levy rates that apply to food importers
|
Imported quantity |
Rate (excl GST) per year |
Rate (incl GST) per year |
|---|---|---|
|
Up to and including 118,500kg of food per levy year |
$67.50 |
$77.63 |
|
118,501 or more kilograms of food per levy year |
$67.50 plus $0.00057 for each additional kilogram imported |
$77.63 plus $0.00066 for each additional kilogram imported |
MPI will issue an invoice for each food importer registration for the levy amount payable.
