Division 3Food handling controls

Division 3 – Food handling controls

5 Food receipt

(1) A food business must take all practicable measures to ensure it only accepts food that is protected from the likelihood of contamination.

(2) A food business must provide, to the reasonable satisfaction of an authorised officer upon request, the following information relating to food on the food premises –

(a) the name and business address in Australia of the vendor, manufacturer or packer or, in the case of food imported into Australia, the name and business address in Australia of the importer; and
(b) the prescribed name or, if there is no prescribed name, a name or a description of the food sufficient to indicate the true nature of the food.

(3) A food business must, when receiving potentially hazardous food, take all practicable measures to ensure it only accepts potentially hazardous food that is at a temperature of –

(a) 5C or below; or
(b) 60C or above,

unless the food business transporting the food demonstrates that the temperature of the food, having regard to the time taken to transport the food, will not adversely affect the microbiological safety of the food.

(4) A food business must, when receiving potentially hazardous food, take all practicable measures to ensure that food which is intended to be received frozen, is frozen when it is accepted.

6 Food storage

(1) A food business must, when storing food, store the food in such a way that –

(a) it is protected from the likelihood of contamination; and
(b) the environmental conditions under which it is stored will not adversely affect the safety and suitability of the food.

(2) A food business must, when storing potentially hazardous food –

(a) store it under temperature control; and
(b) if it is food that is intended to be stored frozen, ensure the food remains frozen during storage.

7 Food processing

(1) A food business must –

(a) take all practicable measures to process only safe and suitable food; and
(b) when processing food –

  (i) take all necessary steps to prevent the likelihood of food being contaminated; and
  (ii) where a process step is needed to reduce to safe levels any pathogens that may be present in the food – use a process step that is reasonably known to achieve the microbiological safety of the food.

(2) A food business must, when processing potentially hazardous food that is not undergoing a pathogen control step, ensure that the time the food remains at temperatures that permit the growth of infectious or toxigenic microorganisms in the food is minimised.

(3) A food business must, when cooling cooked potentially hazardous food, cool the food –

(a) within two hours – from 60C to 21C; and
(b) within a further four hours – from 21C to 5C;

unless the food business demonstrates that the cooling process used will not adversely affect the microbiological safety of the food.

(4) A food business must, when reheating previously cooked and cooled potentially hazardous food to hold it hot, use a heat process that rapidly heats the food to a temperature of 60C or above, unless the food business demonstrates that the heating process used will not adversely affect the microbiological safety of the food.

8 Food display

(1) A food business must, when displaying food, take all practicable measures to protect the food from the likelihood of contamination.

(2) A food business must, when displaying unpackaged ready-to-eat food for self service –

(a) ensure the display of the food is effectively supervised so that any food that is contaminated by a customer or is likely to have been so contaminated is removed from display without delay;
(b) provide separate serving utensils for each food or other dispensing methods that minimise the likelihood of the food being contaminated; and
(c) provide protective barriers that minimise the likelihood of contamination by customers.

(3) Subclause (2) does not apply to food in tamper resistant equipment or containers.

(4) A food business must not display for sale on any counter or bar, any ready-to-eat food that is not intended for self-service unless it is enclosed, contained or wrapped so that the food is protected from likely contamination.

(5) A food business must, when displaying potentially hazardous food –

(a) display it under temperature control; and
(b) if it is food that is intended to be displayed frozen, ensure the food remains frozen when displayed.

9 Food packaging

A food business must, when packaging food –

(a) only use packaging material that is fit for its intended use;
(b) only use material that is not likely to cause food contamination; and
(c) ensure that there is no likelihood that the food may become contaminated during the packaging process.

10 Food transportation

A food business must, when transporting food –

(a) protect all food from the likelihood of contamination;
(b) transport potentially hazardous food under temperature control; and
(c) ensure that potentially hazardous food which is intended to be transported frozen remains frozen during transportation.

11 Food disposal

(1) A food business must ensure that food for disposal is held and kept separate until it is –

(a) destroyed or otherwise used or disposed of so that it cannot be used for human consumption;
(b) returned to its supplier;
(c) further processed in a way that ensures its safety and suitability; or
(d) ascertained to be safe and suitable.

(2) In subclause (1), ‘food for disposal’ means food that –

(a) is subject to recall;
(b) has been returned;
(c) is not safe or suitable; or
(d) is reasonably suspected of not being safe or suitable.

(3) A food business must clearly identify any food that is held and kept separate in accordance with subclause (1) as returned food, recalled food, or food that is or may not be safe or suitable, as the case may be.

(4) A food business must not sell food that has been already served to a person to another person unless the food was completely wrapped when served and has remained completely wrapped.

12 Food recall

A food business engaged in the wholesale supply, manufacture or importation of food must –

(a) have in place a system to ensure the recall of unsafe food;
(b) set out this system in a written document and make this document available to an authorised officer upon request; and
(c) comply with this system when recalling unsafe food.

Note: Editorial note:

Note: Food businesses that are not engaged in the wholesale supply, manufacture or importation of food are not required to have a food recall system. However, all food businesses should note that food that is subject to recall is ‘food for disposal’ and hence all food businesses must comply with the requirements of clause 11 in relation to recalled food.