Retail food sales up but foodservice down for beginning of 2015

Although not specifically about food safety, sales are an important part of any business and results from January and February 2015 show that retail food sales have increased but not by much, 1.2 percent. Food service sales on the other hand have decreased by 0.4 percent.

Cafes and restaurants have obviously been having a difficult time as sales have decreased by 0.4percent. This means that staff are working less hours and there is probably a lot of new recipe or product development going on to try and increase customer attention and therefore sales.

This does have a food safety aspect, as businesses may be tempted to introduce new products which contain food allergens, which may not previously have been in the business.

This will mean extra controls and vigilance required by all staff and management.

The following is the summary of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report;

Monthly retail growth (January 2015 – February 2015 seasonally adjusted)

By sector

• Food retailing (1.2 per cent)
• Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.4 per cent)
• Household goods retailing (1.8 per cent), Other retailing (1.3 per cent)
• Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-0.2 per cent)
• Department stores (-3.2 per cent)
• Total sales (0.7 per cent)                 

By State/Territory

• Northern Territory (2.3 per cent)
• South Australia (1.7 per cent)
• Australian Capital Territory (1.6 per cent)
• Victoria (0.8 per cent)
• Tasmania (0.7 per cent)
• Western Australia (0.7 per cent)
• New South Wales (0.7 per cent)
• Queensland (0.2 per cent)

Year-on-year retail growth (February 2014 – February 2015 seasonally adjusted)

• Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (5.1 per cent)
• Food retailing (4.1 per cent), Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (2.3 per cent)
• Household goods retailing (9.2 per cent)
• Other retailing (1.3 per cent)
• Department stores (-0.6 per cent)
• Total sales (4.3 per cent).

By State/Territory

• New South Wales (5.6 per cent)
• South Australia (5.1 per cent)
• Tasmania (4.6 per cent)
• Victoria (4.4 per cent)
• Australian Capital Territory (4.3 per cent)
• Western Australia (3.0 per cent)
• Queensland (2.7 per cent)
• Northern Territory (0.7 per cent)
• Total sales (4.3 per cent)

Written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.