Category one businesses only
Food service, caterer and related retail businesses in Australia need to meet new food safety requirements from December 2023.
What are the requirements?
Standard 3.2.2.A - 12 requires a food business, when doing a specific ('prescribed') activity, to make a record that proves they have properly managed food safety risks.
- Records must be kept for at least 3 months.
- A record may not be needed if the business can show an authorised officer (food regulator) in some other way they have adequately managed the food safety risks.
What is the evidence tool for?
- This evidence tool is designed to help a business manage critical food safety risks when handling unpackaged potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat.
- The tool will also help a business to show authorised officers that requirements in Standard 3.2.2 are being met.
What are prescribed activities?
- Prescribed activities involve handling unpackaged food that is both potentially hazardous food and ready to eat.
- The requirements are for safely receiving, storing, processing, displaying and transporting potentially hazardous food, and for cleaning and sanitising, as set out in Standard 3.2.2.
Alternatives to records
A business may be able to substantiate their food safety management by:
- physically demonstrating an activity (e.g. sanitising a piece of equipment, measuring the temperature of food)
- training staff on a standard operating procedure and talking/walking through that procedure with an authorised officer.
What is a record?
A 'record' means a document or object in any form (including electronic) that is kept for information it contains or that can be obtained from it. For example:
- writing or other entries on paper or electronic templates
- written instructions that have been verified (e.g. a validated recipe or standard operating procedure - SOP)
- notes on invoices (e.g. temperature of food received)
- data logger information in a graph
- photos or video footage
- information recorded in any other way and kept for the required amount of time.
How to keep a record
- Records should be made each day the business is engaged in prescribed activities.
- Information should include the date (and time, if appropriate) the record was made and which food or activity it relates to.