Animal Products Act 1999

The Animal Products Act 1999 is a major operating law for parts of New Zealand's animal products sector. Its object is to minimise and manage risks to human or animal health arising from the production and processing of animal material and products. It also aims to help animal material and products enter overseas markets by supporting official assurances.

This is not just a one-off approval law. It creates a wider compliance framework. That framework includes risk management programmes, regulated control schemes, animal product standards, exporter registration, official assurances, tracing, recall, verification, record keeping, recognised agencies and recognised persons, cost recovery, and enforcement powers.

For a business owner, the practical question is simple. Does your activity fall into one of the categories this Act regulates, and if it does, have you set up the right programme, registration, records and verification before you trade or export?

The Act contains application, exclusion and exemption provisions. It generally applies to the products and material described in its application provisions, while some products or material are excluded and some exemptions may be made by Order in Council. That means scope should be checked carefully rather than assumed.

The general scheme section gives a useful starting point. It says Part 2 generally requires all primary processors of animal material and products, and certain secondary processors of animal products for human or animal consumption, to operate under registered and independently verified risk management programmes suitable to their own particular animal material, products and operations.

The Act also separately regulates exporters of animal products for human or animal consumption, and certain other animal material and products. It has dedicated parts for game estates and for homekill and recreational catch service providers. It also recognises agencies and persons who carry out specified functions under the Act.

If your business has mixed activities, do not rely on labels alone. A butcher, processor, manufacturer, exporter or rural service operator may be caught in different ways depending on what it actually does, what products are involved, and whether the product is for domestic sale, export, homekill or another category.

Part 2 is central to the Act. It deals with what a risk management programme is, who must have one, the duties of operators, programme content, registration, amendment, suspension and deregistration. The Act also allows limited exemptions in some cases and allows some persons to be required to have a programme by Order in Council.

The key point is that a risk management programme must suit the business's own material, products and operations. This is not a generic document exercise. If your programme does not match what actually happens on the floor, it may not protect the business when verification, enforcement or export issues arise.

The Act distinguishes between significant amendments and minor amendments. Significant amendments require registration steps. Minor amendments require notification. It also allows the Director-General to require amendment to improve clarity of a registered programme.

Some businesses may operate under a multi-business risk management programme. That can be useful where several businesses are covered by a wider framework. Even then, each business should know exactly what part of the programme applies to its own operations and who is responsible for day-to-day compliance.

The Act has specific provisions about the relationship between risk management programmes and the Food Act regime. These include an object section for that relationship, a provision allowing some secondary processors of animal products that are food to elect to operate under a risk management programme, a provision dealing with failure to elect where export of food requires an official assurance, and a provision about alternate or intermittent use of risk management programmes and food control plans.

For business owners, the practical message is not to assume one regime automatically covers everything. If your products are food and your business sits in the secondary processing space, the interaction between this Act and the Food Act 2014 may affect which operating framework applies at a given point.

If your business moves between domestic and export channels, or between different product lines, that interaction becomes more important. The right answer depends on the exact activity and product, not just the business name or industry label.

The Act includes general obligations for tracing and recall, verification, and record keeping and reporting. These are practical control tools, not side issues. They help a business show where product came from, where it went, whether controls were followed, and what action can be taken if something goes wrong.

Verification matters because the Act expects persons subject to verification requirements to comply with those requirements. Tracing and recall matter because a business may need to identify affected product quickly and respond to contamination, disease risk, misdescription or another compliance problem. Record keeping and reporting matter because records are often the first thing checked when compliance is questioned.

For a growing business, the common weakness is informal systems. Batch notes, supplier details and dispatch records may exist, but not in a way that supports a fast recall or a verification visit. The Act points businesses towards systems that are usable, current and capable of being inspected.

Part 5 deals with export of animal material and products. The Act says exporters of animal products for human or animal consumption, and certain other animal material and products, must be registered. It also allows registration of exporters of some non-edible material or products to be required by Order in Council.

The Act sets out duties of exporters, export requirements, exemptions in some cases, and the official assurance system. The Director-General may issue official assurances, and authorised persons may also issue them where the Act allows.

This matters commercially because export access often depends on more than having a saleable product. If a destination market requires an official assurance, your systems need to support the integrity of that assurance. A business that exports directly, or supplies into an export chain, should check the current export requirements that apply to its product and destination.

The Act also allows official assurances to be withheld in some circumstances connected with unpaid fees and charges. For an exporter, that can become an immediate trading issue.

The Act does not treat all animal product activity the same way. Part 6 creates a separate regime for homekill and recreational catch. It covers homekill, processing of recreational catch, service providers, limits on carrying out regulated animal product operations and homekill or recreational catch operations at the same premises or place, and requirements for dual operator butchers.

The Act also says product processed by a homekill or recreational catch service provider ceases to be regulated animal product. That distinction can affect how a business separates activities, handles product streams and manages records.

Part 5A deals with game estates. It defines what a game estate is, deals with use and disposal of animal material and product from game estate animals, and sets out which game estates must be listed, along with listing, refusal and delisting rules.

If your business wants to add homekill services or operates a game estate model, check the separate rules before assuming your existing processing setup is enough.

The Act gives the Director-General and animal product officers significant powers. These include issuing notices and directions, requiring declarations about supply or movement, imposing movement and related controls, directing disposal in some circumstances, recalling animal material or animal product, issuing improvement notices, entering premises, examining things, interrupting operations, condemning diseased or contaminated animal products, and using search warrant powers where available.

The Act also contains offence provisions, infringement notice procedures, compliance orders, and liability rules for companies, directors, managers, principals, agents and employees. It includes a provision allowing an order to pay an amount because of commercial gain in some cases.

For directors and managers, the risk is not only corporate. If a body corporate is convicted, directors and persons concerned in management may also be guilty of a like offence if the act or omission happened with their authority, permission or consent, or if they knew the offence was to be or was being committed and failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent or stop it.

The Act includes a cost recovery regime. Fees, levies and charges can be prescribed, and unpaid amounts become a debt due to the Director-General. The obligation to pay is not suspended by a dispute about liability or amount.

Non-payment can have practical consequences. The Act allows the Director-General, in appropriate cases, to withhold or suspend approvals, withhold registration of an exporter or risk management programme, withhold listing of a homekill or recreational catch service provider, require suspension of relevant operations, and withhold official assurances.

The Act also relies heavily on regulations and notices. Regulations can prescribe detailed requirements. The Director-General may issue notices under the Act. So reading the principal Act alone is not enough for live compliance. A business should also check the current regulations, notices and any sector-specific export requirements that apply to its products and activities.

The Act received Royal assent on 8 September 1999. It came into force on 1 November 1999, except for Part 2.

Part 2 could be brought into force on different dates for different provisions, and for different classes of animal material or products, animal product businesses, operations, or other purposes by Order in Council. To the extent not previously brought into force that way, Part 2 came into force on 1 November 2002.

A note in the Act records that Part 2 was brought into force on 20 November 2000 by the Animal Products Act Commencement Order 2000. The official consolidation checked at the last review states that the latest version was current as at 6 April 2023.