Source: NZ Ministry for Primary Industries
Have your say
New Zealand Food Safety is inviting public comment on the updated ‘Labelling veterinary medicines’ guidance document. This consultation opened on 18 December 2025 and we’re accepting submissions until 5pm on 15 February 2026.
The ‘Labelling veterinary medicines’ guidance document provides the detailed information that must be on a label of a veterinary medicine registered in New Zealand under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997.
This is the third draft consulted for the revised guidance, with the original revision work starting in 2022. The final revised guidance draft includes updates to existing content and new sections included with information relating to:
- diluents for lyophilised immunobiological products
- internal teat sealants
- anthelmintics for small animals
- external parasiticides for production animals
- external parasiticides for companion animals
- teat sanitisers
- generic product label statements
- references to websites or social media, including QR codes.
The revised document also includes additional information prefaced as “additional guidance” in text boxes. This is intended to provide examples and more detailed information to help registrants produce informative labels that comply with regulatory expectations.
Consultation document
Labelling veterinary medicines – guidance document [PDF, 777 KB]
Background information
The document sets out general and specific guidance for label content of veterinary medicines requiring registration under the ACVM Act. This includes compulsory requirements related to regulatory statements mandated by conditions of registration, and expectations for the structure and content of labels.
A first draft of the revised guidance was presented for public consultation between 11 July and 16 August 2022. After considering submissions and actioning further revisions, a second draft was presented for targeted consultation between October and December 2024.
This latest version of the revised guidance summarises the responses received from the second round of consultation and presents the final content intended for publication.
Making your submission
Email your feedback on the guidance document by 5pm on 15 February 2026 to ACVM.Consultation@mpi.govt.nz
While we prefer email, you can send your submission by post to:
ACVM
New Zealand Food Safety
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
New Zealand.
What to include
Make sure you tell us in your submission:
- the title of the consultation document
- your name and title
- your organisation’s name (if you are submitting on behalf of an organisation, and whether your submission represents the whole organisation or a section of it).
Submissions are public information
Note that all, part, or a summary of your submission may be published on this website. Most often this happens when we issue a document that reviews the submissions received.
People can also ask for copies of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). The OIA says we must make the content of submissions available unless we have good reason for withholding it. Those reasons are detailed in sections 6 and 9 of the OIA.
If you think there are grounds to withhold specific information from publication, make this clear in your submission or contact us. Reasons may include that it discloses commercially sensitive or personal information. However, any decision MPI makes to withhold details can be reviewed by the Ombudsman, who may direct us to release it.
