Now that the New Zealand Food Safety Authority has been gutted absorbed into the Ministry of Agriculture, former head honcho and veterinarian Andrew McKenzie has been awarded the Queen’s Service Order in the New Year’s honor for services to the state.??

Dr McKenzie worked as chief executive of NZFSA from 2007 to 2010 and moved from Wellington this year to retire in Greytown.

"We lived in Wellington for about 25 years and we really liked it, but the weather was quite lousy and it was never very warm so we thought here would be a nice place to retire because it’s got its own microclimate and it’s not too far away from Wellington, so we’re really happy here."

??Dr McKenzie started life in the food safety industry as a vet at a meatworks before moving on to bigger and better things such as serving as the chairman of the Meat and Hygiene Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and chairing the World Organisation for Animal Health’s Animal Production Food Safety Group.?

His biggest achievement while working at NZFSA was negotiating trade deals with Europe.

??"I sorted out some quite big trade deals with Europe, which had a major influence on the international standard for meat hygiene," Dr McKenzie said. "A lot of countries put up technical barriers in trade and that’s what I’ve spent my career fighting."

I prefer this 2008 photo.