Food Health and Safety Guidelines

John Blair is Opotiki’s Environmental Health Officer, employed by the Council.  He has issued us the following guidelines to make available to people wanting to sell at the market.

If you are selling any processed foods, like jam, cake, sausage sizzle etc you still need to follow NZ guidelines enforced by our Council concerning food safety.  The marketplace does not provide a loophole for getting around the usual rules, merely an outlet for the sale of goods.

It is up to individual sellers to make sure that they comply.  We have a small team consisting of Tiaho, Lynn Roberts, Kelly and I who are available to answer questions, and will try to get to the marketplace regularly to remind stall-holders of the rules they need to follow.

So, here are the official Food Safety Rules.

LOW RISK FOODS.

These would include Local Farm grown produce. ie Fruit, Vegetables , Corn ,Pumpkins , Melons ,Root Crops . These all fall within the category of what we term LOW RISK food.

Provided the foods are fresh, in good condition, not spray damaged or contaminated and the sale is conducted within the simple hygiene rules the people selling these foods items simply need to register via the clip board system.

MEDIUM RISK FOODS.

At the next level of control are foods classified as Medium Risk.

These foods must have been prepared in a REGISTERED FOOD PREMISE. A Registered Food Premise is one that has a current licence under the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974.  Foods from the registered foods premises must be labelled with the name and address of the premise that it was manufactured or packed in.

Medium Risk Foods include (but are not limited to) jams, preserves, biscuits, cakes, buns, bread, canned foods, lollies, candy Floss. Information must be available if requested by the purchaser of all the ingredients used in the products.

Each applicant must obtain approval from the Council Environmental Health Officer before any of these products can be sold.

You are advised that Council fees are payable for food within the medium risk category.

FUND RAISING FOR VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS, SCHOOLS ETC ON SPECIAL OCCASIONS.

The food hygiene regulations provide for foods to be sold for fund raising under specific food hygiene conditions.  Specific advice on the operation of each method of preparation and sale of food items needs to be obtained and discussed with the council Environmental Health Officer (E.H.O.)to ensure that there is no risk of Food Poisoning.

Applicants will need to get Council approval from the E.H.O. before they can go ahead with fund raising operations involving food.

As part of obtaining Council’s consent Stall operators will all be given details in a Hand Pamphlet relating to the safety procedures involved with handling food and they will need to comply with it.

SEE ALSO: Marketplace rules and Guidelines here