Ready to go global with your food innovation?
Here’s how New Zealand Food Safety can help
You’ve nailed the recipe. Now, let’s make sure New Zealand, and the world, can taste it. Innovation plays an important role in maintaining the growth of New Zealand’s food and fibre exports, contributing nearly $60 billion to the economy in the past year (to June 2025).
Bringing a new food product to market isn’t just about innovation; it’s about navigating the regulatory landscape with confidence. Here’s how New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) can help.
Innovation helps capture global demand for food products.
As a sponsor of the Primary Sector category at the New Zealand Food Awards, NZFS proudly supports the producers and innovators who help grow our export success by delivering high-quality and trusted food products to the world.
Innovation in food production captures global demand for New Zealand food products. Innovation enables exporters to respond to evolving consumer preferences, differentiate their products in competitive markets and add value through new processes, technologies, or ingredients.
New Zealand’s regulatory system can empower you to export successfully
New Zealand’s regulatory system allows for responsible innovation, while also ensuring safety and suitability of food for consumers in New Zealand and around the world. NZFS supports a robust regulatory system to assure overseas markets that exported products continue to meet high standards.
The requirements that make up the regulatory system support New Zealand’s strong export reputation and success for producing high-quality food. By working within regulations, you can confidently bring innovative products to market, knowing they meet the domestic and international expectations for a safe and suitable product.
The pathway to exporting an innovative food product
The export regulatory system for food products generally consists of four main steps:
Understanding export requirements is crucial.
meet New Zealand’s requirements which are requirements under the Food Act 2014, Wine Act 2003, or Animal Products Act 1999;
meet conditions to use an exemption under the Food Act 2014, if required;
meet your overseas market’s requirements; and
get certification if required.
When you have an innovative product, navigating export requirements can be tricky. Export requirements for innovative products can be especially difficult; each innovative product is unique and may not fit into an existing regulatory pathway, or it could fit into a regulatory pathway completely unfamiliar to your business. Every overseas market will also have different requirements.
When you innovate to create a new product, it can change how an overseas market views the product. The product may no longer meet certain requirements as the overseas market may class it differently to New Zealand, or the change has made the product non-compliant with the overseas market’s existing requirements.
Understanding what requirements apply to your product is crucial. If you can identify what requirements apply, you can make sure your innovative product can meet them.
When you meet the overseas market’s criteria, it tells them the innovative product is safe and suitable for their market, which can improve your export success.
How New Zealand Food Safety can help you with your exporting journey
New Zealand Food Safety’s Exporter Help team assists exporters to navigate the regulations associated with exporting. The team provides tailored advice, as well as guidance and education to support exporters.
Our Exporter Help team are here to assist you.
Exporter Help can provide accurate and up-to-date information to help you work efficiently and avoid costly mistakes. No matter the product, the size of your business or where you are in the exporting journey, the Exporter Help team will be able to help you, free of charge.
Exporter Help has created a wealth of resources and guides to help you understand what you need to do on your exporting journey. On the MPI website you’ll be able to find:
Steps to exporting web pages – These are product-specific web pages that collate information you’ll need to know when exporting a certain product.
Exporting guides – Such as the Beginner’s guide to exporting or the Exporting honey and bee products – a guide to meeting the rules .
Exporting webinars - Live opportunities to learn about exporting. Webinars are often recorded and can be found on our Exporting webinars webpage.
The team have also launched a new web page to help exporters of innovative food and fibre products build strong support networks and bring ideas to market. The Support for exporting innovative food products webpage brings together a list of key organisations that can help you with your innovative ideas and connect you with the right tools to move forward towards exporting.
If you’ve got an innovative product and are thinking about exporting, the Exporter Help team is a great place to start. You can send them an email to ExporterHelp@mpi.govt.nz or visit our Get help with exporting webpage.
New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS) is a proud sponsor of the New Zealand Food Awards, owned and operated by Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University.
