Program Overview

The New Zealand kiwifruit is one of the most counterfeited items in the world. New Zealand’s produce is often at the top end of the market, and well worth counterfeiting – if you can get away with it! The techniques you’ll learn in this course can demonstrate the exact point of origin for foodstuffs. This protects our products abroad, and protects our growers at home as well by identifying the source of biosecurity risks when they hit our shores.

The techniques are applicable to criminal forensic work as well, and the analytical skills you will learn will have much broader applications across a wide range of scientific fields.

Anyone involved with Resource Management Act needs staff who can understand analytical science. For example, in the management and custody of natural resources, the analytical techniques you’ll learn in Forensic Analytical Science will help track down sources of contamination.

Traceability gives the edge in niche marketing for top-end products – now we can prove exactly where a product has come from, protecting it from counterfeiting and giving a market advantage.

Government agencies increasingly require people with this kind of analytical training. For example, Department of Conservation workers coming across questionable logging would be able to demonstrate whether timber had come from illegal sites.

Applicants should be aware that the job market in New Zealand for criminal forensic scientists is small and that this course is not a qualification for such a career without further study or employment experience.