Food Safety Programs and supervisors

What is a Food Safety Program?

A food safety program is a plan that shows what a business does to ensure that the food it sells is safe for human consumption. It is an important tool for helping businesses that handle, process or sell potentially hazardous foods to maintain safe food handling practices and protect people's health.

What is a Food safety supervisor?

The role of a food safety supervisor is to supervise food handling in the business and make sure it is done safely.

A food safety supervisor must:

know how to recognise, prevent and reduce hazards associated with food handling
have a Statement of Attainment from a registered training organisation, and
have the ability and authority to supervise other people handling food at your business and make sure it is done safely.

The food safety supervisor may be the proprietor or an employee of the food business.

There are minimum units of competency needed to be a food safety supervisor and these vary depending on the classification of your food business. For information about accreditation in food safety practices by registered training organisations see Australian Government skills training website .

The Department of Health and the Food Standards Australia New Zealand have more information on food safety supervisors and the required training.

Do I need a Food Safety Program or a Food Safety Supervisor?

Class 1 and class 2 food businesses must have a tailored food safety program appropriate to their food business activities and a Food Safety Supervisor at all times

Due to the lower food safety risk associated with the food handling activities at these premises, class 3 and 4 food premises do not need a food safety program or a Food Safety Supervisor, however they do need to keep completed basic records about certain food safety practices on site. This includes details about suppliers and potentially hazardous food.

See food classes for more information about food business classification.

Class 1

Class 1 food safety programs must be specifically tailored to take into account the food handling activities at the premises and address the risks associated with the vulnerable people who are supplied food by the facility.

The Department of Health has more information on food safety programs for class 1 food premises.

Class 2

Class 2 food premises have more choice than Class 1 premises in how they develop their food safety program. The food safety program for Class 2 premises can be:

completed using any suitable template registered with the Department of Health, or
an independent ('non-standard') program that is developed specifically for the premises.

Food businesses can develop their own food safety program using a registered food safety program template.

The Department of Health has a simplified food safety program template for class 2 premises. This template is suitable for a range of class 2 premises, including cafes and restaurants. A business with multiple associated class 2 food premises can also use it for all their class 2 activities. For example:

a restaurant that also provides off-site catering, or
a business that prepares food at a permanent site and sells it from a stall at markets.

A free food safety program template for class 2 retail and food service businesses is also available on FoodSmart. FoodSmart is a Victorian government website designed to help retail and food service businesses develop their food safety programs.

Class 3 and Class 4

Due to the lower food safety risk associated with the food handling activities at class 3 and 4 premises, these premises do not need a food safety program, however they do need to keep completed basic records about certain food safety practices on site. This includes details about suppliers and potentially hazardous food.