Victoria’s Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford has said she’s open to loosening red tape, which small producers said continued to tie them up, as long as food safety is assured.
Ms Pulford was responding to claims, by two small Victorian meat producers selling directly to customers, who said the state’s meat safety regulator, PrimeSafe, was again hitting them with unnecessary red tape.
Central Goldfields producers Ross Davey and Marcia Lazarus and Colin Trudgen, Dollar, Gippsland, said they’d been told they were not allowed to store prepackaged meat, on farm, without a full butcher’s licence.
But Ms Pulford said work on packaged meat exemptions continued.
“We want small agribusinesses to grow and prosper, and we want to reduce red tape, were we can, while ensuring public safety,” Ms Pulford said.
“The safety risks have to be carefully evaluated but as long as those safety risks are negligible and manageable, the idea a packaged meat exemption that currently applies to farmers markets might also apply to people selling from their own farm gate seems to be a good step forward.
“It’s a very modest change, but it will make a big difference to a number of small businesses.”
Mr Davey, of Glen Greenock, Dunach, said he grew Suffolk lamb, which he sold directly to consumers.
“It seems each way I want to turn, I can’t; there’s no solution,” Mr Davey said.
“My needs are simple, my lamb is fully cryo-vacced at the certified abbatoir and I pick it up in a certified prime safe chiller.”
He said it was a four-hour round trip, pick up the processed lamb from Koallah Abbatoirs, Lake Purumbete.
“It’s then not practical to proceed with deliveries, or go to a farmers market – I can’t hold it overnight, because PrimeSafe won’t allow me to do that, in my meat transport vehicle.”
PrimeSafe chief executive Brendan Tatham confirmed transport vehicles could only be used for carrying meat or seafood.
“PrimeSafe supports innovation and small business, with meat and seafood businesses encouraged to contact us with queries and for further information,” Mr Tatham said.
“Meat businesses that retail fresh or packaged meat can be licensed as butchers or wholesalers, with meat transport vehicles (MTVs) being specifically for transport of meat or seafood.
“Unless packaged meat in an MTV is for sale at a farmers’ market and therefore exempt from the Meat Industry Act, Victorian legislation and Australian Standards do not permit the storage of meat in MTVs.”
Mr Davey said PrimeSafe had told him he had to have a fully certified butcher’s shop, to be able to store the meat on the property.
“That’s un-economical, the product is fully packed and boxed,” Mr Davey said.
“I sell on the internet, the meat is fully paid for, prior to delivery, and delivered direct to customers homes. But that is only sustainable for a limited size and operation, it’s now becoming almost unworkable.”
Mr Davey said nothing in the regulations seemed to show PrimeSafe was right.
“From everything I can see, PrimeSafe seems to be just making it up themselves,” he said.
“There is no need for change of the act or regulations, it just needs further definition and allowance for different models.”
And Colin Trudgen, Colin and Sally’s Organic Lamb, Dollar, said he ran a similar operation, sending Witipoll and Wiltshire sheep for slaughter, and bringing them back from a local butcher, in a registered van.
“It’s all pre sold, so we don’t need a vending licence from the council,” Mr Trudgen said.
He said he asked PrimeSafe about farm storage of the storing the packaged meat, before it was taken to customers.
“I was told we couldn’t store it.
“Once the van stops, we need to have a registered butcher’s licence, because it is no longer delivering meat, it is stationary.
“But there is absolutely nothing in the standards, which says we can’t do what we are doing.
“I don’t see how it is any different from me going to the supermarket, and buying some meat for a friend, taking it back to my house and the friend picking it up from my house.”
Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance president Tammi Jonas said it appeared to be another case of PrimeSafe “overreach.”
She said producers could store packaged meat, on their premises, if they had a local government class three licence.
“You should be able to store prepackaged meat, to take to customers, or to have them pick it up,” Ms Jonas said.
“PrimeSafe, for some reason, ignore that part of the food standards regulations.
“As long as it is in a registered fridge and the temperature is being monitored by council health inspectors, what’s the problem ? it seems very much like regulatory overreach.”
PrimeSafe “quite rightly” regulated the processing and transport of meat.
“PrimeSafe is taking the view that if it’s meat, it comes under their act, but there is no processing happening, so it shouldn’t come under their act.”
