Changes to Victorian Food Act reinforce state differences again

With the changes to the Victorian Food Act coming into effect as of 01 July 2011, there is now a need for vending machines registered by the primary council.

This requirement is coming in as of 01 October, and will create significant issues according to the President of the Independent Vending Machine Operators Association (IVMOA), Bob Goss.

The requirement is to give the councils access to the potential food safety risks linked to the specific products in the machines, as well as their location. It is of particular importance because there are now vending machines that cook foods and therefore there are obvious food safety issues.

Mr Goss said, “There are more than 70 principal councils in Victoria, which means there are large numbers of health inspectors from different councils each looking at the new legislation and interpreting it differently. The main issue, however, is that the only people that are being sent out information on the new legislation are those in the IVMOA or involved with it – our members are the legitimate operators. Yet we believe there are thousands of illegitimate operators in Victoria who are escaping the radar. If they are caught, they are subject to a fine from the government. However, these people are not being caught which is why there is not a level playing field.”

As with the broad requirement for all food businesses to have HACCP based food safety programs several years ago, Victoria is in many ways once again taking a strong lead in food safety legislation.

It also highlights the increasing problem in Australia of each jurisdiction having different requirements and then within those, each Council have different interpretations and then the Environmental Health Officers in those councils reading the laws differently as well.

As an example an EHO in one area would not allow the business in their jurisdiction to use probe type thermometers due to potential cross contamination risk and insisting that all food temperature checks be done using an IR gun. These guns cannot take internal temperatures as required by the Food Standards Code, so probe type thermometers are essential. To eliminate the potential cross contamination risk, these can be cleaned and then sanitised with a food grade sanitiser.

Talking with some holders of Showmans Food Vans recently, it became very obvious that there is enormous disparity about food safety across the country. This is creating major problems, costs and confusion.

States need to work together to ensure that food safety laws match across the country – after all, wasn’t that one of the main reasons for the Food Standards Code, to ensure uniformity.