Safety and hygiene
Keeping it clean
The City of Sydney and the State Government run a number of schemes to improve hygiene standards in food preparation.
Inspectors
City inspectors regularly inspect and advise food businesses about hygiene practices. Our staff also offer food-hygiene advice through a customer call centre on 02 9265 9333.
Microbial analysis of food-contact surfaces and other possible sources of cross contamination are also performed during routine inspections.
Complaints about food quality, contaminated food or unclean premises should be made to the City’s environmental health officers.
Scores on Doors trial
Food-retail businesses can advertise their good hygiene standards through a statewide scheme partially run by the City.
Under the STAR Ratings scheme, the more stars on the door, the better the hygiene score inside. Participation is free and businesses can still sign up. They simply need to complete the agreement form below and submit this to the City. Once you have signed up to the scheme, you are obliged to remain part of it for one year, regardless of your score.
To find out more information or to participate, contact the City’s Health Unit on 02 9265 9220 or 02 9265 9597.
Name and Shame scheme
The NSW Food Authority's Name and Shame scheme publicises food businesses that fail to meet certain standards.
Food hygiene workshops
To keep off the Name and Shame list, consider taking one of the City’s free food-hygiene workshops for you and your staff.
The dates for 2013 workshops are:
- 30 April 2013
- 28 May 2013
- 25 June 2013
- 30 July 2013
- 27 August 2013
- 24 September 2013
- 29 October 2013
- 26 November 2013
To register for the food hygiene workshop email us with your preferred date from the list above and let us know the number of people attending from your business. Please ensure you include a contact name, phone number and the name of your business premises.
Please note that there is a maximum of 4 participants (2 for the Cantonese and Mandarin workshops) per premises per session.
On request (minimum 10 people), we can provide a workshop for a temporary food stand or the food hygiene workshop in Chinese language.
You can also just send us an email to register your interest for next year’s training.
More information
The Inner Sydney Councils Regional Group has produced 5 documents on kitchen hygiene. We recommend you download these below and distribute them to staff.
Contacts
Health and Building
02 9265 9220healthbuildinginfo@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Links
| Downloads | ||
|---|---|---|
| Agreement to join Scores on Doors scheme | PDF 35.7 KB | Download |
| Kitchen hygiene: cleaning and sanitising | PDF 359.9 KB | Download |
| Kitchen hygiene: hand washing | PDF 510.5 KB | Download |
| Kitchen hygiene: personal cleanliness | PDF 295.7 KB | Download |
| Kitchen hygiene: skills and knowledge | PDF 339.6 KB | Download |
| Kitchen hygiene: temperature control | PDF 329.1 KB | Download |
| Scores on doors list | PDF 276.7 KB | Download |
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Last updated: Thursday, 16 May 2013