Food Businesses

In Hindmarsh, any business involved in selling food or beverages must be registered with the Hindmarsh Shire Council and comply with the Victorian Food Act 1984 and Food Safety Standards 2023 to ensure the food they provide is safe for consumption.

Please note: Certain primary industry businesses must register with specific authorities instead of the Council. For example, meat and poultry processing facilities, butchers, and fishmongers must register with PrimeSafe, while dairy processors, transporters, manufacturers, and distributors must register with Dairy Food Safety Victoria.

All food businesses are required to be registered with their local Council.

'The Act' also requires food premises to comply with the Food Standards Code Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).

It is a criminal offence under The Act to handle or sell food that does not comply with any requirement set out in the Code. The Act also includes offences involving the handling or sale of unsafe or unsuitable food and false descriptions of food. It is also an offence to sell food that is damaged, has deteriorated or perished, is adulterated, or unfit for human consumption. More information about this can be found on the Victorian Department of Health website.

This means that it is not only the business owner or proprietor who is responsible for food safety in the business, all staff that handle and prepare food for sale to consumers are responsible for food safety.

Without compromising food safety, The Act is designed to impose only reasonable compliance costs on businesses and community groups that sell food. It does this through matching the level of regulation to the level of risk of different food business activities. Some of the activities that Environmental Health Officers undertake to monitor the safety of food prepared and sold in Hindmarsh Shire include:

• Plan approval for new food premises and existing food premises which are undergoing renovations
• Inspecting food premises to ensure food is being stored, prepared and sold in a safe manner
• Conducting food safety program compliance checks
• Investigating food-related complaints and incidents of illnesses associated with food
• Collecting samples of different foods for analysis to confirm the safety of the products
• Following up on food recalls to ensure affected products have been removed from sale to the public
• Ensuring foods are correctly labelled in accordance with the Food Standards Code