Proposal P1053 - Food Safety Management tools

Food service and related retail sectors are vitally important to the Australian economy and our way of life. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has assessed a proposal to strengthen food safety and consistently deliver safer food to consumers, thereby supporting consumer confidence in these sectors.

On 14 September 2022, the FSANZ Board approved a new food standard applying new regulatory measures to food service and retail businesses that handle potentially hazardous food. The new regulatory measures are: food handler training; food safety supervisor; and evidence to substantiate food safety management of key processes.

On 23 November 2022, Food Ministers' Meeting (FMM) informed FSANZ that it does not intend to request a review.

The standard was gazetted on 8 December 2022 and is now part of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code and Australian food law. There is a 12-month period for implementation.

Tools and guidance to improve food safety knowledge, risk management and culture are considered integral to the effectiveness of these new regulatory measures. FSANZ is working with jurisdictions responsible for enforcing the new standard on developing tools such as: an update to Safe Food Australia updated templates, translated food safety information and animations to raise awareness of the new standard.

Approval documents

Approval report (pdf 679 kb)(word 370 kb)

Background

In June 2018, the then Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation (the Forum) noted the number of foodborne illness outbreaks in Australia. They agreed that there is a need to review food safety risk management in the food service and closely related retail sectors.

Through Proposal P1053, FSANZ considered a package of food safety management tools for food service and retail businesses.

Public consultation

FSANZ has engaged closely with stakeholders as a key part of our assessment of this proposal. Information about our consultation activities is below.

Call for submission

In February 2022, FSANZ called for public comment¯on a proposal to amend the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) to introduce nationally consistent food safety management regulation. The submission period closed on 11 April 2022.

The call for submissions report, including the associated supporting documents and the submissions received by FSANZ are available below.

Call for submissions report (pdf 1.17 mb)
Supporting document 1 - Consultation Regulation Impact Statement(pdf 1.50mb)
Supporting document 2 - Risk profile for Australian food service and related food retail businesses(pdf 3.68 MB)
Supporting document 3 - Draft implementation Guidance (pdf 1.30 mb)
Submissions to Proposal P1053 CFS (zip 11.9 mb)

Discussion paper

In February 2020, FSANZ sought public comment on the food safety management tools under consideration and whether these should be included in the Code.

FSANZ sought information on:

the potential impact of these measures on businesses, including whether and how these tools could improve food safety outcomes, and
any gaps between current practices and practices under the proposed tools.

Consultation documents and a summary of the submissions received by FSANZ are available below.

Discussion Paper (PDF 681 kb)
Summary of submissions (Word 64 kb)

Targeted Consultation Survey

In November 2020, we invited stakeholder participation in a short survey to help us to better understand the experiences of food businesses during COVID-19.¯

The survey sought feedback on how COVID safe management plans and their implementation affected business practices. The survey also sought feedback from food businesses on the three specific food safety tools under consideration.