Food Safety Week 2011
Every year the Food Safety Information Council hosts the Food Safety Week promotion to raise awareness of food safety. This year it is being held the week of the 7 to 13 November 2011. The theme is "vulnerable populations" which includes the young, elderly. pregnant and immune-compromised people.
To join in with the activities, council has been helping to protect tiny tummies by conducting inspections of local child care centres and checking their food handling practices.
Council licences twenty-eight child care centres. Of which, 64 per cent have been inspected in the last seven months. The remaining were inspected Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 November 2011. From these inspections, it was noted that 80 per cent were compliant with food safety standards and centres with Food Programs had en exceptionally high standard of cleanliness. All child care centres received an information pack to help them with preparing food safely.
How Council Interacts with Businesses
It is estimated that more than five million Australians get ill from eating unsafe food each year. Food safety is an important issue for everyone. Food businesses are required to ensure that they handle, store, display and sell food in a safe manner.
Council monitors the food safety and hygiene standards of food businesses by employing Environmental Health Officers (EHO’s). Licensing, education, regular inspections and enforcement ensures that food businesses are compliant with food safety legislation.
If a food business fails to comply with food safety laws, it may result in compliance action being taken against the business including improvement notices, on-the-spot fines, suspension of the licence or prosecution.
If you specific questions are not answered on this site, contact council for more information.
Further information
Other useful websites