5195 - NSW FOOD AUTHORITY

(1) In LC Question on Notice 5071, I asked a number of targeted questions asking for specific data in relation to specific matters and cases. The answer provided did not sufficiently respond to each of the questions asked, but rather provided vague answers in the form of dot points. Given this, can you please provide proper answers to each of the following questions, so that I do not need to escalate this matter through other means?

(2) In the NSW Food Authority annual report for Financial Year 2024-2025, can you please explain the 64 per cent increase in audit failure rate over three years?

(a) Are failures concentrated in particular sectors, for example, meat, plant products, dairy, imports?

(i) If so, can you please explain and break down by year as well as by sector?

(b) How many businesses are repeat offenders?

(3) Does a failed audit automatically trigger a follow-up inspection, or is it discretionary?

(4) How many days following a failed audit does re-inspection occur?

(5) What proportion were administrative versus critical food safety breaches?

(6) How many of the 196 audit failures in Financial Year 2022-2023 required follow up inspections?

(a) How many were escalated to penalty notices?

(b) How many were escalated to prosecution?

(7) How many of the 210 audit failures in Financial Year 2023-2024 required follow up inspections?

(a) How many were escalated to penalty notices?

(b) How many were escalated to prosecution?

(8) How many of the 233 audit failures in Financial Year 2024-2025 required follow-up inspections?

(a) How many were escalated to penalty notices?

(b) How many were escalated to prosecution?

(9) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, how many businesses failed an audit more than once in the same year?

(10) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, of all businesses that failed an audit, how many:

(a) had failed in a previous year?

(b) received multiple improvement notices?

(c) escalated to prosecution?

(d) had their licence suspended or cancelled?

(11) Compliance and enforcement statistics (enforcement actions) on page 43 of the NSW Food Authority annual report for Financial Year 2024-2025 indicates a 53 per cent rise in foodborne illness investigations in two years. Are these outbreaks linked to specific industries?

(a) If so, which industries are they linked to?

(b) How many of the foodborne illness investigations were traced to repeat operators?

(c) What proportion of the foodborne illness involved imported food versus domestic production?

(d) How many of the 439 labelling investigations were proactive versus complaint-driven?

(12) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, how many complaints:

(a) resulted in a site inspection?

(b) resulted in a formal investigation?

(c) resulted in enforcement action?

(d) were closed with no further action?

(e) were referred to local councils?

(f) relate to repeat operators?

(13) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, and currently, what is the average time taken to respond to complaints?

(14) There were zero prosecutions finalised in Financial Year 2022-2023, 46 in Financial Year 2023-2024 and four in Financial Year 2024-2025. What accounts for the fluctuation in the number of prosecutions finalised across the three years?

(a) In each financial year, how many matters were referred for prosecution but not pursued?

(b) During the three financial years, has there been any change in enforcement policy or legal resourcing?

(c) Can you please explain why there were zero licence cancellations and zero emergency orders across all three financial years?

(15) There were three product seizures in Financial Year 2022-2023, ten in Financial Year 2023-2024 and eight in Financial Year 2024-2025. For each seizure event across the three financial years, what was the nature of the offence?

(a) Was the business licensed at the time?

(b) Was the business a repeat offender?

(16) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, how many seizures involved:

(a) unlicensed activity?

(b) non-compliant meat stamps?

(c) unidentified or unbranded meat?

(d) raw milk breaches?

(e) unstamped eggs?

(17) In each financial year for 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, can you please answer the following questions?

(a) Did any seized product enter the retail, wholesale or food service supply chain before detection?

(i) If so, can you please provide details for each instance?

(b) Were species identification tests conducted where unidentified meat was seized?

(c) Did any seizure event lead to prosecution or licence cancellation?

(d) How many total product seizures were conducted across all commodities?

(e) Of the seizures listed such as meat products, dairy and eggs, how many involved:

(i) repeat offenders?

(ii) businesses previously subject to enforcement action?

(iii) businesses with prior improvement notices or warning letters?

(f) How many of the identified meat processors and abattoirs had previously been found non-compliant with:

(i) Standard 3.2.1 (Food Safety Programs)?

(ii) the Food Regulation 2015?

(iii) licensing requirements?

(g) For each seizure listed, what was the date of the last regulatory inspection prior to the seizure?

(h) Were any of the seized businesses operating under a current food safety program approval at the time of the offence?

(i) Following the seizures listed, how many prosecutions have been commenced?

(i) How many penalty infringement notices have been issued?

(ii) What is the total value of fines imposed to date?

(j) For each case involving "unlicensed activity", how long had the businesses been operating before detection?

(k) Were any licences suspended or cancelled as a result of these breaches?

(18) In relation to the seizure of 1.5 pallets of unbranded carcass and unidentified meat outlined on page 44 of the annual report for 2024-2025, was the source of the meat traced?

(a) Were consumers exposed to risk?

(b) Were recalls required?

(c) What happened to the operator?

(19) Does the NSW Food Authority publish the names of all offending operators, for example, unlicensed abattoirs, meat processors, knackeries, animal food processing plants and other businesses?

(a) If so, where is this recorded?

(b) If not, why?

(20) In each financial year between 2014-2015 and 2024-25, how many unlicensed operators did the NSW Food Authority become aware of?

(a) Can you please break this down by the different types of businesses?

I am advised:

(1) to (20) See answer to LC QON 5071