136Establishment of New South Wales Shellfish Program

136 Establishment of New South Wales Shellfish Program

136 Establishment of New South Wales Shellfish Program

(1) The Food Authority must—

(a) establish, manage and operate the New South Wales Shellfish Program, and

(b) ensure the Program is maintained and applied to the cultivation, harvest, collection, depuration, transhipment, labelling, identification and tracking of shellfish.

(2) The objective of the Program is to ensure shellfish harvested or collected in New South Wales for sale for human consumption meet food safety requirements by—

(a) assessing harvest areas to determine appropriate risk-based classifications and required food safety controls, and

(b) establishing criteria for the harvest, collection and depuration of shellfish, and

(c) ensuring the criteria are satisfied in the harvest, collection and depuration of shellfish, and

(d) monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of the criteria.

(3) For each local area in which shellfish is harvested or collected, the Food Authority must prepare a local shellfish program that includes the following—

(a) the boundaries of harvest areas within the local area,

(b) plans for the management of harvest areas within the local area that set out the environmental conditions that must be met before shellfish may be harvested, collected or depurated,

(c) a mechanism by which the Food Authority advises licence holders in the local area who harvest or collect shellfish of a change to the status of a harvest area,

(d) the identification of sites for taking samples of the environment in which shellfish are harvested or collected,

(e) a plan for taking the samples referred to in paragraph (d) and a plan for the testing of the samples,

(f) the identification of pollution sources that may adversely affect the environment in which the shellfish are harvested or collected.