Sector
Food safety for caterers and function venues
Catering is the sector where food travels, sits, and gets served somewhere the kitchen cannot see. That is where the risk is, and it is the part most programs describe worst.
What applies to you
Under the Queensland Food Act 2006, off-site caterers require an accredited food safety program. So do on-site caterers and function venues operating more than eleven times a year for two hundred or more people. Accreditation is granted by your local council.
If you cater weddings, corporate functions, sporting events or community events off your own premises, you are almost certainly in scope. If you run functions at your own venue, the threshold above is the test — and it is worth checking, because plenty of venues sit just over it without realising.
The part that matters
Food produced in a controlled kitchen and then loaded, transported, held and plated at a venue spends hours outside your kitchen. Time out of temperature control is cumulative, and the two-hour, four-hour question is decided across the whole journey — not just the bit that happens at the event.
What I do for caterers and function venues
- An accredited food safety program covering production, transport, holding and service
- Loadout and transport procedures with real temperature limits and records
- Cumulative time-out-of-control tracked across the whole event, not just service
- Cook-chill and reheat procedures where you produce in advance
- Function-specific allergen procedures, including guest dietary requirements
- Records that staff can complete at a venue with no office and no printer
- Support with the council accreditation application
- Annual review, and updates when you add a service style or venue type
What it costs
A fixed fee, quoted before any work starts, with travel included in the number you are given. Never an hourly rate that grows.
The scoping call is free and takes fifteen minutes. If it turns out you need something smaller than you thought, I'll tell you.
What I see go wrong
The findings that come up most often in this sector.
The clock is not tracked across the event
Food leaves the kitchen at 3pm, arrives at 4, sits, and is served at 7. The two-hour and four-hour limits apply to total time out of temperature control, including preparation and transport — not the time at the venue only.
Transport is treated as a gap in the records
A record that stops at loadout and resumes at service leaves the riskiest leg undocumented. That gap is the first thing an assessor asks about.
One program for every kind of function
A plated dinner, a grazing table and a barbecue at a park have different hazards. A single program that covers all three in general terms covers none of them properly.
Dietary requirements handled verbally
Guest allergen requirements passed on by word of mouth between kitchen, transport and floor staff is how the wrong plate reaches the wrong guest.
Questions
We only do a few functions a year. Do we need a program?
If you cater off site, you generally need an accredited program regardless of volume. For on-site functions the Queensland threshold is more than eleven times a year for two hundred or more people. If you are near that line, worth checking properly — the scoping call is free.
Does the program cover venues we do not control?
It has to. Your program should describe what you do at a venue you have never seen before, including how you assess whether it is suitable and what you do if it is not.
We use a commercial kitchen we rent. Whose program applies?
Yours covers what you do. The kitchen operator has their own obligations for the premises. Councils will usually want to see both, and it is worth establishing that before you sign a hire agreement.
Can you help with a single upcoming event?
Usually the better answer is a program that covers how you work generally, since a one-event document has no value the following month. Ask and I will be honest about which you need.
Check it against your own situation
This page describes requirements in general terms for caterers and function venues in Queensland. Requirements vary by council, by what you actually do, and they change. Check anything that matters against the current Food Standards Code, your licence conditions and your local council — or ask me, which is free.