Inspections

Your food business will be inspected on a routine basis by an Environmental Health Officer to ensure you are complying with the Food Act and Food Safety Standards. The majority of food businesses are inspected annually; however, this frequency can change according to risk depending on the foods that are handled by the business and on the level of compliance of the business. For example, most manufacturing bakeries are inspected every 6 months, whereas most confectionary shops are inspected every 18 months. Risk will be determined at initial inspections and reviewed at further inspections. Inspections are generally unannounced and officers will always introduce themselves and have photo identification available for you to verify who they are. A standard assessment form is used for inspections to assess compliance with the National Food Safety Standards, based on the following categories (where applicable): • Receiving foods • Storage of foods • Processing of foods • Display of foods • Packaging of foods • Transportation and distribution of foods • Recall / food disposal • Health, hygiene and knowledge • Premises and hygiene Where non-compliance is identified at a routine inspection, a timeframe is negotiated for a follow up inspection to be performed. Nominal risk businesses are not generally subject to routine inspections. Nominal risk businesses are those that only handle low risk pre-packaged foods; however, this does not include manufactures or distributors. Manufacturers and distributors will be inspected irrespective of foods handled.