You may wonder what the penalties are for not complying with our food safety legislation. There are many consequences when handling foods unsafely. Consequences could include a greater risk of contamination, a higher rate of food poisoning incidents, bad publicity and the possibility of prosecution.
But you may not be aware of the monetary consequences. To provide you with an example, the following prosecution details were sourced from the NSW Food Authority Name and Shame website.
This example is from a real Sydney food business that didn’t maintain food safety standards.
- Hand wash basin not accessible and no paper towel – $8000
- Breach of cleanliness standards – $10000
- No thermometer available onsite – $5000
- Fail to eradicate cockroaches – $10000
- Fail to provide facilities for personal items storage – $2000
- The total fine cost for this establishment was $35000
As you can see not maintaining food safety standards and adhering to the requirements of the Food Standards Code can be very costly.