Explanatory Statement
1. Authority
Section 13 of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 (the FSANZ Act) provides that the functions of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (the Authority) include the development of standards and variations of standards for inclusion in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).`
Division 1 of Part 3 of the FSANZ Act specifies that the Authority may accept applications for the development or variation of food regulatory measures, including standards. This Division also stipulates the procedure for considering an application for the development or variation of food regulatory measures.
FSANZ accepted Application A1054 which sought approval to use dibromo-dimethylhydantoin as a washing agent processing aid for all foods. The Authority considered the Application in accordance with Division 1 of Part 3 and has approved a draft Standard.
Following consideration by COAG Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation (the Forum), section 92 of the FSANZ Act stipulates that the Authority must publish a notice about the standard or draft variation of a standard.
Section 94 of the FSANZ Act specifies that a standard, or a variation of a standard, in relation to which a notice is published under section 92 is a legislative instrument, but is not subject to parliamentary disallowance or sunsetting under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
2. Purpose and operation
The Authority has approved a variation to Standard 1.3.3 to permit the use of dibromo-dimethylhydantoin as a washing agent processing aid. Currently, there is no permission for using dibromo-dimethylhydantoin as a washing agent processing aid to treat any food. The draft variation is proposed to address this. Dibromo-dimethylhydantoin is approved as a washing agent to treat all foods with maximum permitted levels of 2 mg/kg of inorganic bromide and 2 mg/kg of dimethylhydantoin in the final treated food.
The Authority has also approved a variation to the Schedule of Standard 1.3.4 to include a specification for dibromo-dimethylhydantoin. Currently, there is currently no specification for dibromo-dimethylhydantoin in the Code.
3. Documents incorporated by reference
The variation does not incorporate any documents by reference.
4. Consultation
In accordance with the procedure in Division 1 of Part 3 of the FSANZ Act, the Authority’s consideration of Application A1054 included one round of public consultation following an assessment and the preparation of draft variation. An Assessment Report (which included the draft Standard) was released on 15 November 2011 for a five-week consultation period.
A Regulation Impact Statement was not required because the proposed variations to Standards 1.3.3 and 1.3.4 are likely to have a minor impact on business and individuals.
5. Statement of compatibility with human rights
This instrument is exempt from the requirements for a statement of compatibility with human rights as it is a non-disallowable instrument under section 94 of the FSANZ Act.
6. Variations
Item [1] inserts a permission in the Table to clause 12 of Standard 1.3.3 to permit the use of dibromo-dimethylhydantoin to treat all foods as a washing agent processing aid.
Item [2] inserts a specification for dibromo-dimethylhydantoin in the Schedule of Standard 1.3.4.