What we do
We work with New Zealand businesses to protect consumers, build market confidence, promote a level playing field for business and support domestic and international trade.
Trade measurement
Effective trade needs transparency and a balance of information and trust between traders and consumers. Trading Standards administers and enforces New Zealand’s system of trade measurement (also known as legal metrology), making sure that weighing and measuring equipment and the quantity in packaged goods is accurate.
Our work provides important controls needed for accurate measurement, to support domestic and international trade.
Fuel quality monitoring
Trading Standards maintains and administers the Fuel Quality Monitoring Programme. This programme monitors the quality of retail fuel in New Zealand and makes sure it complies with specifications set out in the Engine Fuel Specifications Regulations. Statistical sampling is used to detect non-compliance.
The Regulations specify limits on a number of critical properties for premium and regular petrol grades, diesel, marine fuel oils, and biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. Because the main focus of the programme is to sample and test the quality of fuels as they are sold to consumers or supplied for marine, sampling is done from dispenser nozzles at the point of sale or key points in the supply chain.