Australian Health Directory

Food quality, cost-control and safety are critical considerations in health and aged care facilities, whether food is prepared in-house or brought in by a contracted catering business.

The trend to outsource hospital hotel services, and the globalised nature of food production, processing, distribution and preparation demands careful food safety risk management.

Health and aged care services must comply with food safety laws, local council regulations, and local and international standards. The organisation-specific requirements of these are addressed in policies and procedures and accreditation requirements.

In Australia, Food Safety Standards were developed to provide nationally uniform food safety legislation. This is reflected in the Food Standards Code (see www.foodstandards.gov.au).

ISO 22000:2005 has been developed by experts from the food industry together with representatives from Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body jointly established by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation.

HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), also formalised by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, is an international standard that defines the requirements of safe food management systems.

This category features organisations that offer food safety consulting services to the health and aged care industry in the areas of food safety program development; HACCP implementation; accreditation readiness; risk management; compliance audit and staff training in food safety among others. This category also includes listings of consultants who offer assistance with menu design, diet advice, food quality control and outsourcing of hotel services.