A trade union in New Zealand has criticized planned changes to meat export inspection requirements.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is reviewing inspection and examination requirements for exported meat from cattle, sheep, goats, and deer. The goal is to ensure requirements are effective while safeguarding food safety and supporting market access for exports.
The MPI said proposed changes seek to align the export meat inspection and examination requirements with international guidelines and the domestic regulatory system. Changes will affect all parties involved in ante-mortem and post-mortem activities, verification and the export of meat products.
Potential modifications include requiring all primary processors of specified animals to carry out some post-mortem examination activities themselves, under government supervision, rather than relying on government-appointed officials.
Union reaction
The Public Service Association, New Zealand’s largest trade union, said replacing government inspectors with company-employed ones threatens the country’s reputation for food safety and should be scrapped.
“It’s irresponsible for the Government to force this on meat companies – there is no option proposed for companies to keep using the tried and trusted approach of respected AsureQuality inspectors. Independent meat inspection isn’t broken. There is no good reason to privatize it, and every reason not to,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, national secretary for the Public Service Association.
Fitzsimons said company-employed inspectors will face pressure to prioritize production over food safety.
“When inspectors are employed by the very companies they’re scrutinizing, there’s an obvious conflict of interest. We’re talking about fecal contamination and diseased meat potentially reaching supermarkets because inspectors are under pressure from their employer,” she said.
“Why risk making shoppers in European supermarkets sick? New Zealand’s red meat exports are worth $10 billion (U.S. $5.7 billion) annually. One food safety scandal could wipe billions off our export earnings.”
According to the PSA, the proposal also threatens the jobs and working conditions of hundreds of meat inspectors.
“Many inspectors are long serving and highly experienced. Some will retire or go offshore and be lost to the industry in the absence of any plan to retain them. The only winners here are the meat companies – mainly foreign-owned – who will boost their bottom lines by driving down the wages and working conditions of inspectors,” said Fitzsimons.
The consultation is open until Dec. 9. A summary of submissions will be published, and the notice issued in February 2026.
Disease data
In other developments, figures published by the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (PHF Science) show there were 102 cases of salmonellosis in September, compared with 55 in September 2024. There were 95 cases in July, up from 56 in July 2024.
In September 2025, at least 39 people were hospitalized. The main risk factors were consumption of food from retail premises and overseas travel. The serotype was identified for 90 cases and 38 were Salmonella Typhimurium.
An outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) was also reported in September at a school camp in the Canterbury district. The outbreak had 47 cases, of which 10 were confirmed and 37 were probable. Six people were hospitalized and two developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). E. coli O157:H7 ST11 was confirmed from clinical samples. The camp’s private water supply was identified as the likely source.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)