The Food Act 2006
[as amended by all amendments that commenced on or before 23 February 2008]
"An Act to provide for matters relating to handling and selling
food, securing the safety and suitability of food and fixing
standards for food, and for other purposes"
We catch up with Rachelle Williams (profile) from Blue Print Career Development and quickly discusses the The Food Act 2006 (QLD).
DEAD LINE: 1 JULY 2008
All food businesses in Queensland will need to have a Food Safety Supervisor trained and ready by the due date 1 July 2008.
What does this mean for Queensland Hospitality workers and food businesses? We hope the below interview will assist you.
What is the Food Act 2006 (QLD) designed to do?
The Food Act 2006 is designed to provide businesses and the public with the best food safety available.
What does this mean for businesses?
What this means for businesses is that now they have to arrange to send somebody, a suitable Person, off to Food Safety Supervisor Training and they must have that Person trained by the first of July, 2008. That’s a fairly big onus, and they need to be doing that as promptly as possible. We've basically only got two months in which to get that done.
It also means that those businesses that are high risk have got to be getting Food Safety Program in place within the next 2 to 3 months so they meet the required deadline of first of July. Once again a fairly big ask.
Who needs to become a Food Safety Supervisor?
Who needs to become a Food Safety Supervisor? The Person in the business that is ideally suited to be a Food Safety Supervisor is somebody at supervisory or management level.
They shouldn't be a food handler, they shouldn't be the owner. But the owner should be aware of what is required. It should be a manager because they need to be making decisions about food safety.
They need to be responsible for food safety in the business. They need to be strong enough to be able to stand up to the owner or to the authorities to be able to say this is what we are doing and this is how we are going to do it, and they have to be the main point of contact for the food business with the local council.
Where can I take this course?
This course that I am actually presenting is presented at the moment through Blue Print Career Development and also through Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE.
There are other course out there the advantage of this course as opposed to many of the others is that it includes all 7 of the current required units of competency or subjects in the one course. This means that if someone completes the course, once they complete the course they can move into whatever area of the food industry they need to without having to do another course that is area specific.
What are some of the key topics?
The key topics in this particular course include all of the mandatory requirements, so in other words what we talk about are things like supplier control, temperature control, pest control, what they need to have in place as businesses. How they actually do that.
It discusses how to put together a Food Safety Program, the basic requirements and how to actually manage.
It also goes into a lot of the law and what is required and how to actually use that law, where to find it.
It’s a really well rounded subject, well rounded course and it covers a multitude of subjects.
For more information please view the below links:
Blue Print Career Development: www.blueprintcd.com
Rachelle Williams at AnYi Pty Ltd: www.howsafeisyourfood.com.au