Food Businesses

All food businesses wanting to sell food within the Southern Midlands Council area must submit a new food business application to Council, pay the applicable fee and have their food business premises approved before they can begin operating. 

This is a requirement under the Food Act 2003. Your food business application will be assessed by Council’s Environmental Health Officer, who will contact you to arrange a pre-registration inspection of your proposed food business premises as part of this assessment.

The Environmental Health Officer will also identify the risk category of the food you will be selling.  This will determine how often the premises are inspected and the food business renewal fee.

Food Business Application Form 

If you are taking over an existing food business, you still need to submit a new food business application.  Food business registration certificates are non-transferable.

Constructing new or altering existing food premises

If you are constructing a new food business or altering an existing one, you will need to check with Council’s Planning department as you may require a Planning Permit.  You may also require Building and Plumbing permits.

If so, you will need to engage a building surveyor to assess your plans for compliance under the National Construction Code 2022 – Building Code of Australia, including, Schedule 9 Tasmania – TAS Part I4 Food Premises.

An Environmental Health Officer will need to check that your building plans comply with the requirements for food businesses before Building and Plumbing Permits can be issued.

Food Business Construction Guide

Mobile Food Businesses

You will need to submit a food business application to Council and pay the applicable fee if your food van is garaged or if your food stall equipment is stored within the Southern Midlands Council area.

The Environmental Health Officer will need to inspect your food van or market stall set-up before you can begin operating.  View the Tasmanian guidelines for Mobile Food Businesses here: https://www.health.tas.gov.au/publications/guidelines-mobile-food-businesses

Temporary Food Businesses

If you are wanting to sell food temporarily for a fundraising event or market stall, you can apply for a short-term food business registration and pay the applicable fee.

Temporary registrations are not designed to be used for frequent events or for an ongoing business.

Temporary Food Business Registration Application Form

Closing a Food Business

If your food business no longer requires a registration certificate due to closure or change of use, please notify Council’s Environmental Health team of this change via email to mail@southernmidlands.tas.gov.au

It is very important that all food businesses sell food that is safe to eat. 

The Environmental Health team works to ensure that food businesses are complying with the food safety provisions in the FSANZ Food Standards Code.

This is a requirement under the Food Act 2003. 

• We:
• Routinely inspect registered food businesses
• Provide food safety information
• Investigate reports of food-borne illnesses
• Conduct food sampling to test for contaminants

Food Handler Training Requirements

3.2.2A businesses must ensure that all people involved in the handling of ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food complete a food safety training course or have the skills and knowledge of food safety and hygiene matters commensurate with the specific activity.

A good way of showing adequate skills and knowledge is completing a food safety training course such as DoFoodSafely: https://dofoodsafely.health.vic.gov.au/index.php/en/

Food Safety Standard 3.2.2A

A national Food Safety Standard now applies in Tasmania.

This Standard introduces new requirements for food service, catering, and retail business that handle unpackaged, read-to-eat, potentially hazardous foods. It introduces three ‘tools’ for certain food service, catering and retail businesses:

• food handler training requirements
• appoint a food safety supervisor
• record keeping of key safe food handling practices

Further information and resources are available on the Department of Health website or by calling 1800 671 738.

Record Keeping of Key Safe Food Handling Practices

This requirement is for a business that is a caterer or a food service business that processes unpackaged potentially hazardous food into a food that is potentially hazardous food and ready-to-eat food.

Under Standard 3.2.2A food businesses must be able to demonstrate that their food is safe. This is to ensure businesses are actively monitoring and managing key food safety risks related to food temperature control, food processing, and cleaning and sanitising, which are critical for food safety. 

The requirement can be met by maintaining records or demonstrating to authorised officers that the business is safely receiving, storing, processing, displaying and transporting potentially hazardous food, and cleaning and sanitising.

What needs to be shown:

Specific activities relating to the requirements of Food Safety Standard 3.2.2 must be monitored and/or recorded, including:

• temperature control during food receipt
• storage
• display
• transport
• pathogen reduction during food processing
• minimising time during food processing
• cooling food
• reheating food
• cleaning and sanitising.

Keeping Food Safe

Safe temperatures for cooking and storage of food

• Potentially hazardous food must be kept under temperature control below 5° Celsius or above 60° Celsius.
• The ‘2-hour/ 4-hour’ rule must be used for potentially hazardous food. View the rule here.
• Cooked, potentially hazardous food must be cooled and reheated safely. View the safety standards here.

Keeping food areas clean

• Food contact surfaces must be routinely cleaned to remove dirt, grease and food, and sanitised to destroy microorganisms. View the factsheet on cleaning and sanitising here.

Preventing cross-contamination

• Raw ingredients must be stored away from cooked and ready-to-eat food.
• Separate utensils and equipment must be used for storing, preparing and serving allergenic foods – food allergens include fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, milk, wheat, gluten, lupin and soy.

Washing hands

• Hands must be washed with soap and warm running before handling food and after touching raw food such as eggs and meat.

For more information on food safety, view the factsheet from the Tasmanian Department of Health.

View the free, online food safety training tool for staff here. 

Food Labelling

There are certain requirements for labelling packaged food that is for sale.

These rules help to ensure that people who buy the food understand what it contains. View the Labelling Packaged Food Guide here.

Southern Midlands Council have adopted a Mobile Food Vendor Policy allowing mobile food vendors to operate from nominated locations in our municipality.

Please refer to the Policy below for further details and the current Fee schedule for the associated fees.

      Fee Schedule
      Mobile Food Vendor Policy
Mobile food vendor application Form
Mobile food vendor application Form

All enquiries relating to applications under the Mobile Food Vendor Policy should be directed to our Planning Department – email planningenquiries@southernmidlands.tas.gov.au or call 03 6254 5050.

Please contact our Environmental Health Department if you wish to lodge a complaint to council against a business in the Southern Midlands Municipality if you have:

Suffered an illness as a result of consuming food purchased from their premises
Found a foreign object (for example, glass, insect, etc) in food purchased from their premises
Concerns about poor food preparation, handling or display practices at their premises
Concerns about the cleanliness of their premises
Contact us to Lodge a Complaint