Providing meals or preparing food for children brings early childhood centres under the Food Act, ‘national programme 2’.

All existing ECE services to whom the Food Act applies must apply for registration before or by 31 March 2017 at the latest!

Applications must be made at least 3 months before registration is necessary (30 June 2017).

The information shared below for ECE services covers:

1. Exemptions and how to know for sure if your service must register under the Food Act or not
2. Alternative practices your early childhood service could choose to adopt so it no longer comes under 'national programme 2'. 
3. The benefits of the new Food Act for children, ECE providers and the ECE sector
4. The costs and what’s involved: The process of getting a verifier to check your service is making food safe and registering your service with the Ministry for Primary Industries or local council. 
5. Changes to your service that you must inform your local council or MPI of after you have registered

Included is the experience of some early childhood services to date.

You are invited to also add questions, comments, share what your experience has been and discuss.

 

1. Exempt early childhood services

An early childhood service is not required to operate under the national programme 2 if:

This information or article is exclusively for our early childhood service members holding a full membership