Available now in 62 countries, following each country’s own food hygiene rules.

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Australia: for every food business

Ready for the food inspection. Every day.

In Australia the app follows the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, Chapter 3: Standard 3.2.2 (food safety practices) and Standard 3.2.2A (food safety management tools), which every state and territory applies through its own Food Act. You choose your state or territory when you sign up. Chef Hygiene keeps your daily records; it does not register your business, and it is not approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, any state or territory, or any council.

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14 days free · one price per site · no contract

The Chef Hygiene app on a computer: the home screen of a kitchen with its daily checksThe Chef Hygiene app on a phone: the home screen of a kitchen with its daily checks

Australia: food hygiene rules

Inspection body
Your local council's environmental health officers (in the Australian Capital Territory, ACT Health; in the Northern Territory, NT Health), under the Food Standards Code as each state's and territory's Food Act applies it
Public rating
In some places
Languages in the app
English

Your inspection

Register your food business with your council before you start (with ACT Health in the ACT and NT Health in the NT; in Queensland a licensable business gets a licence from the council). The council's environmental health officers inspect restaurants, cafés and takeaways (in the ACT and the NT, the territory's health department). In Victoria, Safe Food Victoria (since 1 July 2026) licenses dairy, meat and seafood businesses, while councils still look after restaurants and cafés.

Officers check the Food Standards Code. Under Standard 3.2.2A (since 8 December 2023) a category one business (a caterer or food service business that makes ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food from unpackaged ingredients: restaurants, cafés, takeaways, caterers) needs a food safety supervisor, trained food handlers and records; a category two business (a shop selling unpackaged ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food it did not make) needs the supervisor and trained handlers. Some states add rules: in Victoria a class 2 business doing the listed higher-risk activities keeps a food safety program (most use the free FoodSmart template); in Queensland caterers keep an accredited food safety program. In New South Wales a penalty notice for not following the Food Standards Code is $660 for a person or $1,980 for a company (NSW Food Authority register, 2026); we did not confirm the amounts in other states.

Hygiene rating

There is no national grade. Some councils give a voluntary star rating after their normal inspection: NSW's Scores on Doors (3 stars Good, 4 Very Good, 5 Excellent), Queensland councils' Eat Safe and South Australia's Food Safety Rating Scheme. Taking part is voluntary.

“Law” is a binding rule. “Official guidance” is not law, but inspectors expect it. “Chef Hygiene default” is a value the app checks against where no rule gives a number.

Temperatures

  • LawPotentially hazardous food kept at 5°C or below, or 60°C or above ("temperature control"), on receipt, in storage, on display and in transport. A probe thermometer accurate to ±1°C wherever such food is handled (Standard 3.2.2).
  • Chef Hygiene defaultFrozen food stays frozen: the Standard names no freezer temperature. Chef Hygiene aims for −18°C or colder and flags anything warmer than −12°C as good practice, not the law.
  • Official guidanceCooking: a step reasonably known to make the food safe, with no number in the law. 75°C in the centre is official advice.
  • LawCooling from 60°C to 21°C within 2 hours, then to 5°C within 4 more hours; reheating food for hot holding rapidly to 60°C or above (Standard 3.2.2; FSANZ advises reheating within 2 hours).
  • Official guidanceThe 2-hour/4-hour rule for food between 5°C and 60°C: under 2 hours, use it or refrigerate it; 2 to 4 hours, use it but never refrigerate it; over 4 hours, throw it out. This is FSANZ guidance, one way to show your food stays safe.
  • Chef Hygiene defaultChef Hygiene asks for fridge checks at opening and closing.

Staff, training and health

  • LawA category one or two business appoints a food safety supervisor before it starts: someone reasonably available, with a certificate issued in the last 5 years. In New South Wales the certificate is the NSW Food Authority's; in the ACT every registered food business needs a supervisor (Standard 3.2.2A and state rules).
  • LawEvery food handler has done a food safety course or can show the skills and knowledge for their work; there is no set number of hours (Standard 3.2.2A). Free courses exist.
  • LawStaff with symptoms of a foodborne illness report it and don't handle food; someone diagnosed with a foodborne illness comes back only when a doctor says they are no longer sick or carrying it. No routine health certificate (Standard 3.2.2).

Allergens

  • LawThe allergens the Food Standards Code names (Plain English Allergen Labelling, PEAL, in force since 25 February 2024): wheat and cereals with gluten, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, egg, milk, lupin, peanut, soy, sesame, added sulphites of 10 mg/kg or more, and each tree nut by name (almond, Brazil nut, cashew, hazelnut, macadamia, pecan, pistachio, pine nut, walnut). For food sold unpackaged, the information is shown with the food or given when a customer asks.

Fire safety checks

  • LawEvery workplace has an emergency plan with evacuation procedures, how to tell emergency services, and testing of the procedures; the law sets no interval for the testing (model WHS Regulations, r 43; Victoria has its own OHS regulations).
  • LawQueensland only: an evacuation practice at least every year, with a record; evacuation instructions every year; first-response instructions every 2 years and within a month for a new worker (Building Fire Safety Regulation 2008).
  • Official guidanceAS 3745 (planning for emergencies in facilities) is a standard, not law; its yearly evacuation exercise is good practice. Chef Hygiene suggests a yearly drill elsewhere.
  • Chef Hygiene defaultExtinguishers, the fire alarm, exit signs, hood fire suppression and electrics: Chef Hygiene suggests dates you can change. They come from the National Construction Code and state rules, which we did not check for intervals.
  • Official guidanceEmergency: 000 for police, fire and ambulance.

Records

  • LawA category one business keeps records of receiving, storage, cooking, cooling, reheating, display and transport temperatures, time out of temperature control, and cleaning and sanitising, for 3 months, on site whenever it is open (Standard 3.2.2A, clause 12).
  • LawRecords can be in any form, electronic included: there is no government records app. An officer may accept another way of showing safe practice, but can then ask for records.
  • Official guidancePest control and training records are good practice, not records Standard 3.2.2A asks for.

Official sources

Checked

This page is general information, not legal advice. Check with your local authority.

Australia: the Chef Hygiene app

The app loads these rules for your kitchen, checks your records against them and keeps proof for the inspector.

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