Details of E.Coli levels in raw milk as per press release of December 7, 2015
Dear Food Authority, NSW,
On 7th December you published a press release about the removal of raw milk from shops in NSW that said 'Results from samples taken from the recent product seizures showed elevated levels of E.coli present'
Could I please request any documents and information regarding these recalls including:
The brands of milk that were recalled.
The shops they were recalled from.
All the test results from the various milk that was tested including the results containing the elevated E.Coli.
The use-by dates of the milk.
and any other documents you have relating to these recalls.
Yours faithfully,
Wayne Connor
Dear Wayne,
Thank you for your email to the NSW Food Authority dated 31 Dec 2015.
Your email has been forwarded to an officer in our Compliance and Investigations Unit who will respond as soon as they are able to.
Should you have any other questions please do not hesitate to send us an email or give us a call on 1300 552 406.
Regards
Mirjana
NSW Food Authority Helpline
P 1300 552 406 | E [NSW Food Authority request email]
6 Avenue of the Americas, Newington NSW 2127
PO Box 6682 Silverwater NSW 1811
W www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au
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NSW Department of Primary Industry | NSW Food Authority
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Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your enquiry. I refer you to the following page for
information relating to accessing information held by the NSW Department
of Industry, including the Food Authority.
[1]http://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/about/acc...
I also attach an access application form for your assistance.
Thank you very much.
Governance & Information Requests Unit
NSW Department of Industry
PO Box K348 | Haymarket NSW 2001
T: 02 9934 0648 | E: [2][email address]
Dear GIPA Enquiries,
I have filled in your Formal Application Form and have posted it with a cheque for the Application Fee.
I await your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Wayne Connor
Dear GIPA Enquiries,
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
My freedom of information enquiry was not wanting you to go and do interviews, I am just after the documentation that you have.
My wording may not have been clear but this is what I meant by the phrase "Could I please request any documents and information regarding
these recalls“ and "any other documents you have”
So I am just after the documents that you already have that were behind the press release of December 7, 2015.
I am only after the documents that you already have. I am not asking you to do any further investigation or interviews.
If the brands of milk and stores were not recorded in your records that is fine. So if the answer is, ‘we have no information except that here are the test results’ then that is OK.
Thank you and please this has already taken way too long as my initial formal request for information was December 31, although my initial phone call to Food Authority was mid December in the week following the recall. It is now almost 3 months!
Thank you,
Wayne Connor
Wayne Connor left an annotation ()
Wayne Connor 15R Beni Drive Dubbo NSW 2830
Via email: wayne@dubbo.org
enquiries: Kylie Broughton e: kylie.broughton@industry.nsw.gov.au t: (02) 993 40657
Our ref: 16-114
Dear Mr Connor
I refer to your revised application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009
(GIPA), to obtain copies of information regarding the recent product seizures of raw milk.
Following searches and work conducted to date by NSW Department of Industry it has become
obvious that the cost of completing your request is expected to be in the vicinity of $960.
Under s. 68(1) of the GIPA Act, the Department may request an advance deposit where, in its opinion, the cost of dealing with an application is likely to exceed the amount of the application fee and I have determined this to be the case in relation to your application.
On that basis, the Department is requesting an advance deposit of $480 towards the cost of completing your application. Payment of an advance deposit should be made by 10 April 2016 in the form of a cheque or money order made out to NSW Department of Industry.
A breakdown in the estimated processing time is as follows:
Task
Estimated Hours
Cost ($30.00 per hour)
File searches locating and retrieving documents.
2 hrs
$60
Assessment of documents, identification of third parties
3 hrs
$90
Preparation of schedule
1 hr
$30
Third party consultation – there are 12 third parties at 2 hrs each consultation
24 hrs
$720
Photocopying/scanning
0
0
Decision
3 hrs
$90
TOTAL
Less application fee TOTAL
33 hrs 1 hr
$990- $30 $960
Please note that if you fail to pay the advance deposit by the due date, we may refuse to progress
NSW Industry
Legal Branch Level 7
PO Box K348 Haymarket NSW 1240
www.industry.nsw.gov.au ABN: 72 189 919 072
your application. You will also forfeit your application fee of $30.
You can reduce the cost of your application by excluding the names of the shops the milk was recalled from. Doing this means that consultation would only be required from 3 third parties, thereby reducing the total cost of processing your application to $450.
If you do not agree with this decision, you can ask for it to be reviewed. You have 20 working days from the date of this letter to apply for an internal review, or 40 working days to apply for an external review.
The period of time between the date of this request and receipt of payment of the advance deposit is not taken into account in calculating the number of days taken to deal with your application.
If you wish to discuss this issue or have any questions relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me on (02) 993 40657
Yours sincerely
Kylie Broughton
Senior Information & Privacy Coordinator 21 March 2016
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