New Food Handling Requirements

As you may be aware, food service, caterer and related retail businesses in Australia have needed to meet new food handler training requirements from December 2023. The release of this information prompted a few calls to our office from parents who asked if the rules applied to their P&Fs, so we did some investigating.

We reached out to the Enrironmental Health Directorate within the Department of Health, and they advised we note standard 3.2.2A-3:

3.2.2A—3 Application of this Standard

(1) This Standard applies to a food business in Australia that is a category one business or a category two business.

(2) This Standard does not apply to the handling of food for or at a *fund raising event.

* fund raising event means an event that raises funds solely for a community or charitable cause and not for personal financial gain.

If this exemption doesn't quite cover your P&F event, please contact our office.

We also reached out to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand they advised us that although "charities, groups or volunteers providing free food may be exempt from some or all legislation applying to food businesses, other legislation may apply." They recommend that if you are running a community event where you are preparing, serving and selling food, and you have any concerns, you should contact your Local Council and ask for an Environmental Health Officer or an authorised officer to see if there are any requirements you must meet.

For tips on how to store, handle and serve food in a way that keeps everyone safe, please go to the InfoBites factsheets on the Food Standards website.

To view the code, please click here.

To view the Food Handler training fact sheet, please click here.