Resources
Food safety, explained plainly
Short pieces on the things food businesses most often get wrong. No sign-up, no sales pitch — each one ends with something you can actually do this week.
Use by is a safety date and it is illegal to sell after it. Best before is a quality date and the food can still be sold if it is sound. Anything with a shelf life under two years must carry one of them.
Read it ›60 °C to 21 °C within two hours, then 21 °C to 5 °C within four more. Cool in shallow batches, and record the time at each stage.
Read it ›Cleaning removes the soil you can see. Sanitising reduces the bacteria you cannot. Food contact surfaces need both, in that order, at the right concentration and contact time.
Read it ›Ice slurry should read about 0 °C, boiling water about 100 °C. A probe out of tolerance puts every reading since the last check in doubt, so check monthly and write down what you found.
Read it ›A record needs a date, a reading and a name. Complete it at the time, not at the end of the shift, and always record what you did about an out-of-limit result.
Read it ›The Code requires compliance with the program, not possession of it. Ask a staff member what the critical limit is for their step — if nobody can answer, the plan is not working.
Read it ›A note on what you read here
These are general explanations of requirements under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, written for people running small food businesses. They are not advice for your specific operation, and requirements change.
Check anything that matters against the current Code and your own licence conditions — or ask me, which is free and takes fifteen minutes.