New food safety law for Victoria

The Food Amendment (Regulation Reform) Bill 2009 has been passed by the Victorian Parliament. The amendments to the Food Act 1984 will give Victoria a better system for regulating the safety of food sold for human consumption. The amendments are intended to reduce the compliance costs for businesses (including community groups that sell food) by allowing regulation to be better matched to the level of food safety risk.

The amendments will improve the governance and operation of Victoria’s devolved regulatory framework. Without compromising food safety, the changes will reduce the regulatory burden on many businesses and not for profit organisations, and enable better use of council resources.

The changes aim to achieve greater consistency in administration of the Act by enshrining a statutory role for the department of providing guidance and leadership to councils. They will improve the knowledge base on food safety by mandating the collection and publication of data on the performance of the food safety system.

A broader array of regulatory tools for use by councils, to enable proportionate enforcement, will also be introduced.

A single statewide registration and notification system for food vans and market stalls will be established.

To ensure that consumers have more information about food businesses, information about convictions for Food Act offences will be publicly available.

The changes will take effect in three distinct phases. This is to ensure that all steps necessary to implement each initiative are put in place before the relevant change is legally binding, and to allow time for guidance materials and training for councils and businesses to be arranged.

It is expected that the new classes of food premises, together with the associated changes to regulatory requirements, will come into effect on 1 July 2010 (Phase 1).

For instance, these changes will apply from that date to food premises that:

• are already registered, or
• apply for registration.

More information explaining the changes in more detail will be provided to councils, businesses and community groups prior to this time.

Until then, food premises and councils should continue with their current arrangements. This means that until further advice, food premises applying for registration or renewal of registration should do so under the existing processes.

The remaining changes will come into operation from 1 July 2010, or in early 2011 (Phase 2) or mid-2011 (Phase 3).

For more information, read the Timetable for changes.

This website will provide further updates from time to time.

See below for more information:

• Food safety law amendments 2009
• Why reform the Food Act?
• Who will the food safety reforms affect?
• What will change? What will stay the same?
• Classification of food premises
• Class 1 - nursing homes, hospitals and long day care
• Class 2 - such as restaurants, cafes and many manufacturers
• Classes 3 and 4 - low risk activities (including most community groups)
• Single registration mobile / temporary premises
• New tools and accountabilities
• Food safety audits and assessments
• Food service workers training
• Register of convictions
• Other reforms
• Timetable for changes

For more information, read the second reading speech on the Food Amendment (Regulation Reform) Bill (under 'Parliamentary Documents') at the Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents website.

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