How do food businesses determine the correct shelf life information for their products?
The responsibility of determining the shelf life of a food, and thus its best-before or use-by date, lies with the manufacturer or distributor.
Correct Food Systems can advise business on how to estimate and then test the safe shelf life of a Characteristics of the product,including the quality, form and consistency of ingredients, the moisture content, acidity levels, addition of preservatives all influence the safety of a food product, as does external factors like storage, transport and packaging of the food.
The most direct way of doing this is to conduct properly constructed storage trials on a sample of food under realistic, controlled conditions.
Correct Food Systems is not a food laboratory testing facility.
There are food testing laboratories in each state and territory that can conduct  microbiological tests for 

• Food-borne micro-organisms such as Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, E.Coli, Yeasts and Moulds, Staphylococcus Aureus, Bacillus Cereus and others
• Total viable count or plate count

Some manufacturers include recommendations for handling the product after opening with regard to time and temperature.If thereare no instructions for use or storage after opening the onus is on the consumer to handle the product hygienically, store it at recommended temperatures and use it within a reasonable time, certainly within the time frame specified by the manufacturer for the unopened container.

NSW Food Authority has a useful publication to assist businesses to ascertain the shelf life and required date marking information for a product.

See our webpage "Shelflife testing"

Victoria's Health Department have published some useful factsheets and guidance material in 2017.
Whilst targetting food businesses in Victoria, the information is suitable and informative for food businesses in other states.
Each state has its own system of licencing,regulatory inspections and classification/ notification of food businesses, so please check with your local council authority or state health authority.
Information in these guidelines provide sound principles of safe food handling.

• Clean-up guidance for Listeria monocytogenes detection
  in food
  Useful guide to ensure that food businesses effectively clean and sanitise both the premises and their equipment to reduce the risk of further contamination, after a positive Listeria monocytogenes result.

NSW Government has delayed the implementation of the Container Deposit scheme until 1 December 2017. WA and QLD are still planning implementation  from Mid 2018.

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.

On 28 November 2016, a minor amendment was made to the Information Standard so that sections 22 and 23 (dealing with imported food packed in Australia) and section 26 (dealing with imported food with Australian ingredients).
The amendment primarily relates to a very narrow range of foods that were made in a single overseas country and subsequently packed in Australia.  
Section 22 provides for the use of a standard mark on the labels of food packaged in Australia where some of the food in the package has not been grown, produced or made in Australia. The standard mark can state that the food is packed or packaged in Australia and include text and a bar chart indicating the proportion of Australian ingredients, but it cannot include the kangaroo logo because it contains food that was not grown, produced or made in Australia. 
The ‘Packed in Australia from at least x% Australian ingredients’ would be retained for foods from multiple countries with some Australian content that are packed in Australia – for example, nuts from Australia and other countries that are mixed together and packed in Australia. Section 23(1) of the Standard has also been amended to prevent food grown, produced or made in a single overseas country from using a label to indicate variance of ingredient origin over time. 
From Country of Origin Food Labelling Factsheet  Country of Origin Food Labelling Update – minor amendment to the Information Standard 2016

NSW Food Authority has launched a interactive Hub for food labeling information.
This hub provides detailed information on the various aspects and requirements for compliant food labelling. 
Review information on Labels and the Law, Understanding Claims, How to read a Label, Ingrredients and Nutrition, Directions for Use, Country of Origin and more.
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/foodsafetyandyou/food-labelling

The NSW Food Authority published an updated resource - Food Safety Guidelines for the preparation of raw egg products.
The NSW Food Authority has developed these guidelines to assist businesses to undertake practices that will ensure that they comply with requirements when making products known to cause salmonellosis.
The guidelines advise businesses to use safe alternatives to raw eggs in foods which are not cooked. Alternatives include commercially produced dressings and sauces, or pasteurised egg products. 
Should businesses choose to use raw eggs in products, the guidelines advise suitable control steps for foods and menu items containing raw egg, known to cause cases of salmonellosis, that:
-The  raw egg product is to be acidified to a pH of 4.2 (or less) or effectively heat treated (giving businesses instructions on how to achieve this)
-The treated raw egg product should be stored at or below 5˚C for no longer than 24 hours.
Download this guideline at NSW Food Authority 

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

Over 140 people have been affected by food poisoning, with 11 people hospitalized at West Wyalong Hospital , after eating some light refreshments after attending a  funeral wake.
The The Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) Public Health Unit ​ are assisting in investigations. 

The NSW Food Authority has updated the resources to promote allergen awareness and management, targeted towards advising food service and retail businesses.
The new resources include a revised version of the booklet Be Prepared. Be Allergy Aware , a A2 poster of the 9 nine common allergens, and a new allergy aware checklist.
Food Service retailers are advised to manage allergens by 
1. Know ingredients in menu items
2.Avoid cross contamination
3.Listen and collect accurate allergen information from customers
4.Educate all staff members..
These new resources can be found at http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/rp/allergies-intolerances
or download the pdf files below

Photo from NSW Food Authority - The usual suspects poster

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.

A dirty kitchen appliance used to blend and puree food has been blamed as the source of a salmonella outbreak at the Burnside War Memorial Hospital in Adelaide's eastern suburbs.
To date 16 people have become ill with a gastric illness.
"This is a very important time to give a warning out to all South Australians, but especially those in commercial kitchens, to make sure that their mixers are able to be properly cleaned, that there isn't food residue building up in parts of the mixer that can't be accessed." SA Health Minister Jack Snelling .
All food service businesses that prepare food using a blender, juicer, or vitamiser need to ensure the equipment is dismantled fully, and each part is cleaned, to be visibly clean, then sanitised by heat or  a chemical sanitiser.
Source ABC www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-28/salmonella-outbreak-blamed-on-stab-mixer/6809610

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​.

The new online tool to assist you to determine and down load the correct Country Of Origin labelling mark for your food product has been released.
It is available for use on  www.business.gov.au/foodlabels. 
This online tool will assist you in choosing an appropriate label for the food product you are planning to sell in Australia. The tool will help you determine if you need a label, and if you need a standard mark that features graphics as well as text, it will then find, customise and download an appropriate label for your food product so your food products are compliant with the new Country Of Origin food labelling requirements that commence on 1 July 2016.