As of September 1 a whole new layer of compliance has been added to the burden. A requirement of the Wine Act 2003 is that all wineries must submit a “Wine Standards Management Plan” to the New Zealand Food Safety Authority. The NZ Wine Institute did go to bat for winegrowers when this piece of heavy-handed bureaucracy was mooted to try and convince them how unnecessary it is for winegrowers, but to little avail.
The Food Safety Authority is motivated almost wholly by the need to avoid the contamination of food. As we have seen in recent years this has become a major issue through the apparently growing prevalence of many nasty biological agents which can cause severe illness. But wine, whilst technically a food, is totally “safe” from biological contaminants - its alcohol is enough to kill any microbial life likely to be a health threat.
We are henceforth obliged to establish and maintain data recording systems in excessive detail. Again the Wine Institute has come to our assistance by developing a standardized Code of Practice. But this requires comprehensive documentation of much of our grape growing activity and all of our winemaking operation.
When we have put together our plan a “Verifier” spends a day or so at our premises, entirely at our cost, checking our set up and all of our records against the plan to ensure that we are doing exactly what the plan says. It is not entirely clear how often we have to get “verified” or what happens if the verifier finds inconsistency between practice and plan. But one thing for certain is that it will involve more time and expense for the winegrower.
It is highly unlikely that winegrowers who already live or die according to the quality – “safety” if you like, of their product, are going to do anything they are not already doing to improve their practice as a result of this.
The thinking behind this sort of bureaucracy is that producers cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and the consumer has to be protected by Nanny State against these rogues. Winegrowers who value their integrity and are proud of their product may justifiably feel insulted by this new imposition, not to mention aggrieved by the additional time wasting and cost it requires.
Robin Ransom
President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.
robin@ransomwines.co.nz
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters, September 2008
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