The NSW Food Authority has released a version of basic food handler food safety training.
 The free online training has 7 modules of content of food safety information.
Assessment is done using a 30 question quiz.

Submission of the quiz provides a Certificate of Acknowledgement of successful completion of the online course Food Handler Basics.
This will satisfy the training requirement of FSANZ 3.2.2.A Food Safety Management Tools for Category 1 & 2 businesses- Food Handler Training.

Available from the NSW Food Authority. ​Food Handler Basics training | NSW Food Authority

FSANZ addendum Standard 3.2.2A Food Safety Management Tools was gazetted in early December 2022. 
It is important to note that each state and territory will manage the compliance requirements and implementation arrangements for 3.2.2.A slightly differently so approach your state and territory health department or food authority.
In Victoria and NSW it will become law for food service, caterers and retailers to comply with  by December 2023, allowing affected businesses a 12-month implementation period from December 2022. Other states are still yet to announce their implementation plans and timetable.

The new food safety management tools are:

1. food safety supervisor (FSS) training
2. food handler training (FHT)
3. evidence to substantiate food safety management of key processes.

The new food safety standard extends the requirements of 3.2.2 to businesses in food service, catering and retail that handle unpackaged potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat. 
(One off fundraising events are exempt from 3.2.2.A but still need to prepare safe and suitable food).

Businesses that will be affected by requirements for Category One (all 3 food safety management tools are required).
Any business that prepares, processes and serves unpackaged potentially hazardous food, ready to be consumed: restaurants, pubs, hotels, accommodation, takeaway food, mobile vans, juice bars, hospitals, aged care, schools, canteens, training centres, caterers, cruise boats, bakery.

Businesses that only sell potentially hazardous food that is unpackaged and not processed or prepared on site (other than sliced, displayed, weighed reheated) are Category 2 and need to comply with food safety management tools 1 & 2. 

Need more information?
See our webpage. for links and further support.
Use the contact CFS page to send an enquiry 

Correct Food Systems has resources, training booklets, and a range of record formats ready to assist your business with this new requirement. Customised to your business, suitable and easy to implement. 

FSANZ has updated its Compendium of Microbiological Criteria, in March 2022. 
​
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) uses this compendium to provide best practice guidance for food regulators and the food industry.
The compendium provided microbiological criteria for ready-to-eat foods, as well as several specific food commodities: Powdered infant foods, meat products and dairy foods.
There is also expanded guidance for environmental monitoring ( swabbing) to ensure process controls are effective.
The compendium also includes information on individual pathogenic bacteria and indicator organisms.
Changes in 2022 Version:

• The latest version has a slightly different structure.
• Expansion on Dairy Products. New microbiological criteria and process control guidance for
  5.a Raw Bulk Milk
  5.b Butter and Dairy Blends
  5.c Cheese ( Heat Treated Milk) 
  5.d Cheese ( Raw Milk) 
  5.e Dairy based Dips and Desserts
  5.f  Dried Milk Powder
  5.g Ice cream and Frozen Products
  5.h Pasteurised liquid milk and cream
  5.i Powdered Infant formula
  5.j Raw Goat Milk
• ​There is additional guidance on the use of microbiological criteria, and how the compendium is used , in conjunction with the FSANZ  Food Standards Code.(see below Figure 1).
• Ready to Eat Food. Pathogen testing in RTE food, Table 2.1 now in alphabetical order.
• Powdered infant formula: Adjustment of non regulatory criteria.Testing for Bacillus cereus is recommended. Process control guidance diagram. Table 3.2 Microbiological guideline criteria for powdered infant formula products
• Dairy Products.
  Guidance on controls and different types of microbiological criteria.
  Guidance on Dairy microbiological testing ( Section 5.2) including typical testing and sampling.
  Microorganisms important in the dairy industry (Section 5.3) indicator organisms and pathogens.
  Microbiological criteria for dairy product categories (Section 5.4)
  Table 5.1 Microbiological criteria for raw bulk milk
  Table 5.2 Process control for the production of butter and dairy blends ( Previously processed liquid milk and cream)
  Table 5.3 Microbiological guideline criteria for butter and dairy blends- clearer presentation of information
  Table 5.4 Process control for the production of cheese (heat-treated milk) 
  Table 5.5 Microbiological guideline criteria for cheese (heat-treated milk)
  5.d Cheese (raw milk)
  5.e Dairy-based dips and desserts
  Table 5.8 Process control for the production of dairy-based dips and desserts
  Table 5.9 Microbiological guideline criteria for dairy-based dips and desserts
  5.f Dried milk powders
  Table 5.10 Process control for the production of dried milk powders
  Table 5.11 Microbiological guideline criteria for dried milk powders
  5.g Fermented milk products 
  Table 5.12 Process control for the production of fermented milk products
  Table 5.13 Microbiological guideline criteria for fermented milk products 
  5.h. Ice cream and other frozen products
  Table 5.14 Process control for the production of ice cream and other frozen products
  Table 5.15 Microbiological guideline criteria for ice cream and other frozen products 
  5.i Pasteurised liquid milk and cream
  Table 5.16 Process control for the production of pasteurised liquid milk and cream
  Table 5.17 Microbiological guideline criteria for pasteurised milk and cream
  5.5 Corrective Actions
  Table 5.18 Recommended corrective actions (if failure of microbiological guideline criteria) 
  Table 5.19 Recommended corrective actions (if failure of process hygiene criteria)
  5.6 Clearance program- guidance and sampling
  5.7 Environmental monitoring - guidance.
• 6.1 Environmental Monitoring- Introduction
  6.2 A typical monitoring process
  Figure 6.1: Example environmental monitoring zones- expansion of 3 zones to now 4 zones (A-D).
  See Figure 6.1 below.
  6.3 Recommended corrective actions- for the 4 zones A-D.
  6.4 Monitoring for Listeria monocytogenes- specific guidance 
• Appendix 1 Pathogens. 
  Clostridium botulinum (added)
  Shigella (added)
• Appendix 2 Indicator Organisms ( now alphabetical order: Coliforms, Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, Listeria spp, Standard plate count (SPC)

Correct Food Systems has been approached by a few client businesses asking how to handle the risk of Coronavirus  when handling food and the issue of staff wearing masks etc.
Here is the World Health Organisation's advice  and the South Australian Governments advice on environmental hygiene that we would encourage every business to follow.
Advice for food handlers at this stage is inline with normal infection control procedures.
Here is the general advice to prevent spread of infection.
This includes:

• Cleaning and disinfection is recommended. This can be accomplished using a two-step process, or a combined detergent/disinfectant product.
• Chemical sanitisers shown to be effective are:
  -a TGA approved (registered or listed) hospital-grade disinfectant, preferably with label claims against coronavirus, or
  - a chlorine-base product such as sodium hypochlorite at 1,000 ppm available chlorine
  - Other sanitisers at certain dosages as listed by South Australia Health
   See South Australia Government guideline for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): environmental management 
• Dishwashers with a effective sanitising cycle- over 82°C hot rinse cycle with a chemical sanitiser
• Enforce thorough and frequent handwashing and hand drying
• Enforce PPE , gloves guards etc when handling ready to eat food
• Cooking of foods to 75°C or equivalent.
• Avoid touching your mouth, eyes and nose
• Practice respiratory hygiene- covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately.
• Food Handlers must not work with food if symptomatic of a contagious illness, such as corona virus.
• Staff and businesses should follow advice and instructions from their local  health and food authority.
• Use disposable cleaning equipment and cloths where possible
• Allow staff to wear masks if they feel the necessity to do so. This is not the norm at the moment.
• Dishwashers with a effective sanitising cycle- over 82°C hot rinse cycle with a chemical sanitiser

Correct Food Systems will issue any advice should the circumstances in Australia change.

Woolworths have issued a new Code of Practice on Food Safety Culture.
This applies to those supplying a Woolworth's Branded Product, who are certified as Approved Suppliers using the Woolworths Supplier Excellence Program.
This Code of Practice follows in work done  by the GFSI institute.
BRC also has a requirement that businesses take steps to implement a positive proactive culture that builds and develops Food Safety throughout all sections and levels of the business. Demonstrated leadership  and commitment by senior management is a key requirement of both the Woolworths Code of Practice and BRC.

Correct Food Systems has developed excellent resources that will assist any business to assess the internal culture, and take actions steps to improve the values and commitment to food safety across the business.

We have a dedicated presentation suitable for management and QA on " Exploring Food Safety Culture" to assist and start the discussion and plans for the business.
Need some tools and  means to assess the culture in your business- we have surveys, questionnaires and SWOT analysis forms.  These are designed to meet the requirements of WSEP and BRC schemes, as well as incorporate FSANZ content.
We have staff training material to assist staff to understand the importance of food safety to the business.
Let us provide some guidance on how to develop and document the food safety culture within your business.

A free online training program is available to train food service staff.
This has been launched by the National Allergy Strategy- a partnership between Australia's peak allergy bodies.
​The free online training "Allabout Allergens" is available at www.foodallergytraining.org.au covers:

• Common food allergens
• Issues for allergen maangement
• avoiding cross contamination
• managing allergen enquiries from customers
• When things go wrong

To check out the requirements for importing  specific products into Australia you can use the  BICON website- Australian Government's Biosecurity import conditions database.
https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0/
​
This website steps you through a series of question regarding the product you are wanting to import and the source of the product and allows you to save the detailed requirements as a word document.
Importers are  advised to check the biosecurity requirments for all products they plan to import and gain any necessary import permits from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resource.
Import permits may require a manufacturers declaration  and a Official Government Certificate issued by the competent authority of the exporting country for the product.

Use the BICON website to ascertain the requirements to import your product.

This 3rd Edition, November 2016 updated reference provides guidance to the three food safety standards in Chapter 3 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code).
Businesses can use the guidance information to help them to comply with the standards.
It also provides new guidance for mobile, temporary and home-based vendors, as well as generic food safety record templates.
​Down load the new version of Safe Food Australia

The FSANZ website also launched a "Food Safety Hub", as a page that provides links to

• Recall advice
• Food safety incidents of note
• Resources to improve the food safety culture within a business
• Food safety standards and information

The Compendium of Microbiological Criteria for Food is new food industry resource, published by FSANZ. It is a microbiological guideline criteria used for ready-to-eat foods. It also provides microbiological criteria that can be used to verify hygiene measures or control of processing.

It supersedes the Guidelines for the microbiological examination of ready-to-eat foods and User guide to Standard 1.6.1 - Microbiological Limits for Food with additional guidelines criteria.

This compendium brings together information on:

• profiling pathogens and indicator organisms significant to food safety;
• information on Interpreting results for testing of pathogenic microorganisms in ready-to-eat food,
• microbiological guideline criteria for ready-to-eat foods, 
• process hygiene criteria that have been established for specific food commodities such as Powdered infant formula and chicken meat

The reference limits provided allow an assessment of  the safety of Ready to Eat Foods and includes likely causes and recommended actions.

State and territory food enforcement agencies are investigating cases of Salmonella, possibly associated with rockmelon, following an increase in cases in a number of states in Australia.

While we wait for further information, the best advice is that consumers, especially infants, the elderly, pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems, should not consume rockmelon.

FSANZ will continue to work with the state and territory enforcement agencies and the Federal Department of Health and update its advice to consumers.
Further food safety advice regarding the safe preparation and storage of rockmelon can be found on the NSW Food Authority website. This contains advice on how to prepare rockmelons.

Information reproduced with permission of Food Standards Australia New Zealand​.