Food Act 2014

Provisions relating to recognition, territorial authorities, administration, and enforcement - Offences - Sentencing

270: Order to pay expenses

You could also call this:

"Paying for costs if you break a food safety rule"

If you are found guilty of breaking a rule in the Food Act 2014, this section applies to you. A court can tell you to pay some or all of the costs that the chief executive or a territorial authority had to pay to investigate the food or food-related accessory that was involved in the case. The court can make you pay for things like taking, holding, or testing the food.

The costs you have to pay can include things like storing the food while the court case is happening. You have to pay the amount the court decides, and it is treated like a fine. This means you have to pay it in the same way you would pay a fine.

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This page was last updated on 5 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2996393.

Topics:

Health and wellbeing > Food and water safetyBusiness > Industry rules

269: Order to pay amount because of commercial gain, or

"Paying a penalty for breaking food safety rules to make money"

271: Order to forfeit and dispose of food or food-related accessory, or

"When you break a food rule, the court can take away your food or food items and decide what happens to them."

Part 4Provisions relating to recognition, territorial authorities, administration, and enforcement
Offences: Sentencing

270Order to pay expenses

This section applies to a person convicted of an offence against this Act.
A court may order the person to pay to the chief executive or to a territorial authority, as the case may be, all or any of the expenses incurred in taking, holding, detaining, storing, or testing food or a food-related accessory for the purposes of the prosecution.
An amount that the court orders to be paid under this section is recoverable in the same manner as a fine.