This page provides information on food safety, how to report a food safety complaint and tips for food safety at home.
Food Safety in the City
Food safety and proper food practices are important, as every year it is estimated that there are 4.1 million cases of food poisoning in Australia.
All food business in Australia must comply with national regulations and standards. The Food Act 2008 (WA), Food Regulations 2009, and the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code set the requirements for food businesses in Australia.
Our Services
Our environmental health team undertake regular monitoring of businesses and groups who sell food to the public to make sure they comply with food safety regulations.
This includes:
- Carrying out unannounced hygiene assessments of all food businesses on a regular basis
- Sampling locally produced foods and comparing results to the National Standards
- Investigating complaints about food and food handling practices
- Promoting food safety and hygiene, including providing training for food handlers through the I’m Alert Food Handlers Training Program
- Working with local businesses to ensure they meet food safety regulations. This includes our recognition scheme, Scores on the Doors.
Scores on the Doors
We operate a hygiene recognition scheme that awards businesses that meet and exceed food safety requirements with a star rating out of five. Look out for Scores on the Doors certificates on display at food businesses around the City.
Please refer to Scores on Doors - Participants to see which of your local businesses have already joined the scheme.
You can see a list of Scores on Doors participants on the easy to use dashboard below.
- Click on slices on the donut chart to filter participating food premises by score.
- Click on any suburb on the heatmap to filter to participating food premises in that suburb.
- You can use ‘Search for a food premise’ to search for participating food premises.
Food Poisoning or Food Complaints
If you feel you have become ill from dining or food purchased within the City, please contact us so our environmental health team can investigate.
If you have any of the food left, please keep it and place it in the fridge or freezer until we can collect it from you.
Food businesses that have been convicted of an offense under the Food Act 2008 (WA) are published on the WA Department of Health website.
Home Food Safety Tips
Hand Washing Tips
Wash your hands regularly with hot soapy water:
- Before starting to handle food
- Between handling raw and cooked food
- After visiting the toilet
- After handling the rubbish bin
- After handling pets
- After coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose
Temperature Control
- Keep cold food below 5ºC, as bacteria grow more slowly below this temperature
- If you are cooking food that you intend to keep and serve later or on another day, make sure you cover the food and place in the refrigerator as soon as possible after cooking (preferably just after food has stopped steaming)
- Do not leave food at room temperature for longer than two hours
- When cooking food make sure the food is steaming hot all the way through and when cooking mince or chicken that the juices run clear
Cross Contamination
- Store cooked and raw foods separately so that juices from raw foods do not drop onto cooked foods
- If placing cooked and raw foods in the same fridge make sure that raw foods are stored below cooked foods
- Do not use the same chopping boards and plates to put cooked foods on if you have used them for raw food.