Food Safety plays an integral role in the food industry to ensure food provided to the general public is safe and suitable for human consumption. Under the NSW Food Regulation Partnership, Council is responsible for monitoring all retail food business within the shire and carry out regular inspections to check compliance with the Food Safety Standards.
Food businesses that are required to registered with council include:
- retail food outlets incl. cafes, restaurants and takeaway stores
- supermarkets
- mobile food outlets
- school canteens
- childcare centres that provide food
- home based businesses and bed & breakfasts
Under the Food Act 2003, you must notify Council if you are operating a food business, any changes to ownership or if you wish to change the use of an existing building, failure to contact Council is a breach of your requirements and may result in your business being closed.
Prior to operating a food business, you are required to:
- gain approval from Council to operate
- obtain a Food Safety Supervisor Certificate from the NSW Food Authority
- visit NSW Food Authority for specific business food safety requirements and obligations.
Carrathool Shire Council have officers authorised under the Food Act 2003 to carry out regular inspections of food businesses to ensure compliance with NSW Legislative requirements. Their role is to ensure that adequate food safety practices and processes are in place.
Council officers will assess the following as part of the inspection:
- general items: that you appointed a trained Food Safety Supervisor (FSS), have an FSS certificate on the premises, and that food handlers have skills and knowledge to handle food safely
- food handling controls: storage, display and transport, processing, the risk of cross-contamination
- cleaning and sanitising, hand washing and proximity of facilities
- food temperature control
- pest control
- premises design and construction: issues such as water supply, disposal, adequate and safe garbage facilities and lighting
- food labelling: accurate and sufficient.
Complaints
At times, it may be necessary to lodge a complaint about food or goods purchased from a business within Carrathool Shire. Complaints can be made directly to Council on 6965 1900 or council@carrathool.nsw.gov.au. The complainant’s name and contact details, nature of complaint, name and address of food premises and date of purchase of product(s) will need to be provided to Council.