Food safety information for businesses

We take food safety seriously and expect every business to comply with their legal requirements to serve safe and suitable food to the public.

To help food business meet their responsibilities, we have put together key food safety tips that reflect what an Environmental Health Officer would generally look for when undertaking an assessment on your food premises.

• Provide an adequate supply of food grade sanitiser to sanitise food contact surfaces, like food preparation benches, chopping boards, and food preparation utensils.
• Provide a calibrated, digital probe thermometer to accurately monitor and record core food temperatures.
• Clean and sanitise your calibrated, digital probe thermometer between uses.
• Provide your hand wash basins with warm running water, a supply of liquid soap and disposable paper towelling to ensure food handlers can wash their hands and safely handle food.
• Keep your hand wash basins unobstructed at all times.
• Clean and sanitise of all food contact surfaces to reduce the risk of cross contamination to the food you handle and prepare.
• Clean all hard-to-reach areas, such as beneath cooking equipment and benches, and the internal surfaces of the cool room and refrigeration units to remove residues, grease and food waste.
• Repair any damage and deterioration to floors, walls and ceilings, and any fixtures or fittings to reduce the risk of contamination to food. Generally, the quicker you attend to repairs the cheaper it will be.
• Ensure all refrigeration and cold display cabinets maintain food cold at or below 5°C
• Ensure all hot holding units, such as rice cookers and Bain-Maries, maintain hot food at or above 60°C
• Ensure all freezers store food at or below -15°C or as directed by the food manufacturer.
• Ongoing non-compliance and a failure to address food safety deficiencies in your food business may require further enforcement action being taken, including the payment of an additional inspection fee or being issued with an infringement notice or Prosecution.

If you require any assistance with your food safety requirements, please contact the Environmental Health team or 9784 1915.

All Class 1 and Class 2 food businesses are required to have a food safety supervisor who is reasonably available to all food handlers at the premises.

• Each food safety supervisor must now update their training every 5 years.
• Current food safety supervisors who completed their training before December 2023 must update their training by December 2028.
• Everyone who works in a food business – including the proprietor – is responsible for the delivery of safe food to the customer.
• The food safety supervisor must have the minimum competencies for the food sector they work in and have a Statement of Attainment to be a food safety supervisor in their sector.
• Training courses are provided by registered training organisations.

For further information on Food Safety Supervisors and the minimum competencies for your food business, please refer to the Department of Health website.

Recent legislative changes now require all food handlers in your business who handle unpackaged, high-risk foods to demonstrate good knowledge and skills in safe food handling practices. This can be achieved by completing a free online food safety training course called 'Do Food Safely'.

To demonstrate compliance with the new requirements, it is recommended you maintain a record of the Certificate of Completion from this training for each member of staff.

Due to recent changes of the Food Act 1984, a new declaration has come into effect on 2 August 2022.

As a result, the following changes have been made; Class 2 food services and retail food premises are exempt from the requirement to have a food safety program for a period of five years except if one or more of the high-risk food activities are undertaken within the premises:

High risk food handling activities

• Sous Vide
• Potentially hazardous food that does not require temperature control (eg. sushi, cured meat, aged beef, smoked foods etc)
• Fermented/acidified food or drinks (eg. Saurkraut and kombucha)
• Ready to eat foods containing raw unshelled eggs (unpasteurised) (eg. Mayonnaise, tiramisu, mousse)
• Offsite catering
• Ready to eat raw or rare minced/finely chopped red meats (eg. Raw or rare hamburgers)
• Ready to eat raw or rare poultry and game meats
• Complex food processes (eg. Pasteurisation, dehydration, modified atmosphere packaging or any activity that does not use temperature control)

Class 3A food premises are not required to keep minimum records.

Class 3 food premises are not required to keep minimum records, except for warehouses and distributors (these premises are required to keep a food suppliers record only, no other minimum records are required).

Further information regarding the Food Act changes can be found here. 

The following application is only for Class 4 food premises. Please confirm you food business Class by visiting Food Businesses classifications page.

If there are any other food handling activities to those listed below, you will need to apply for Food Business Registration. If you have any questions about your food business classification, please contact us on 9784 1915.

A Class 4 food premises is one at which the only food handling activities are one or more of the following:

• The sale to the public of pre-packaged low-risk food (e.g. confectionery, shelf stable food and drinks)
• The sale of packaged alcohol – for example bottle shops and liquor shops
• A wine tasting for members of the public, which may include the serving of cheese or low-risk food, which has been prepared and is ready-to-eat
• The sale to the public, or wholesale, of whole (uncut) fruit or vegetables
• The handling of low-risk food or cut fruit or vegetables and the serving of that food to children at an education and care services facility within the meaning of the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010, and children’s services within the meaning of the Children’s Services Act 1996 (Victoria)
• The offering to members of the public a free sample of a low-risk food for immediate consumption if that food is, or will be, available for sale at the premises in a packaged form (e.g. honey)
• The serving of coffee, tea (with or without milk, soy, almond or any other liquid), alcohol (including the addition of sliced fruit, pasteurised dairy products), water, soft drink (except fermented soft drinks containing a live culture) intended for immediate consumption but does not include unpasteurised processed fruit or vegetables (for example, fresh juice) or any drink which has any other potentially hazardous food added, such as unpasteurised egg.

If you operate a Class 4 food business, you must Notify Council – this is a legislated requirement. There are no fees to apply for notification.

If you wish to cancel your current food business registration that is no longer operating or has changed ownership, please complete and submit the Application for Cancel Food Business Registration(PDF, 713KB)