A recent audit has found the City of Greater Geelong is one of many organisations not complying with its legislative responsibilities to enforce food safety and protect public health.
The Auditor-General’s Regulating Food Safety report, tabled June 20, examined five Victorian councils and the Department of Health.
Under the Food Act, councils are responsible for the day-to-day regulation of most food premises across the state, including assessment and inspections.
The report discovered widespread lack of consistent compliance with food safety regulation and enforcement obligations among the five councils between 2018-2022.
In Geelong’s case, the report concluded the city’s ability to “effectively fulfil their food safety functions from 2020 to 2022 was constrained” by a number of factors, including difficulties in filling staff positions and the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on officials’ ability to conduct inspections.
Geelong’s difficulties in meeting its food safety obligations appeared to mirror statewide trends, with less than 25 per cent of all 79 Victorian councils reporting they had assessed all class 1 and 2 food premises in 2021-22 compared to almost 50 per cent in 2018-19.
Annual council responses across the state cited COVID-19 lockdowns as a primary cause of the drop in assessments.
The audit also found Department of Health officials do not know which councils are meeting their obligations and “undertakes little if any meaningful analysis of the data it receives from councils”.
Food safety is a critical public health issue; an estimated 600 million people around the world fall ill after consuming contaminated food every year and about 420,000 of them die.
Every year, approximately 4.7 million cases of foodborne illness in Australia cost the community $2.4 billion.
The Auditor-General has made three recommendations to councils and seven to the health department, with the vast majority of these accepted.
They include greater collaboration between councils and the department, implementing performance measures and improving consistency in councils’ compliance ratings of food premises.
