Growers of berries and leafy vegetables selling from a small roadside fridge, the farm gate or a farmer's market have been given three months to prepare for the introduction of stringent and costly new safety regulations. Public consultation is still open on the draft regulations and will close at 5pm on December 19.
The new accreditation, as recommended by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), will take effect from February 12 and be enforced by the middle of next year. Small scale growers are bracing for the extra paperwork and many are unhappy about the financial and administrative pressure it will place on their small businesses, saying there has not been a safety issue in the past, therefore the regulations are unnecessary.
St Helens market gardener Josh Hall grows and bags up salad mix and has up to 20 different crops growing throughout the year, including spinach, rocket, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, potatoes, onions, capsicum, jalapeno and garlic.
This year so far he's produced 453kg of salad mix with 95 per cent of it sold within 2km of his farm.
Read more at Tasmanian Country
