ACT food safety legislation 'to reduce red tape' for charity sausage sizzles
The ACT Government will this week introduce new laws to reduce red tape at community fundraising events.
Laws introduced in September 2013 forced organisations, like charities and sporting groups, that hold more than five barbecues a year to train a food safety officer to oversee the event.
This sparked concerns from school groups and charity organisations who said the new laws would harm their fundraising efforts.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said under the proposed new legislation, if food businesses only sold low-risk food they would not have to notify ACT Health at all.
"They got swept up in some of the food regulation changes and required them to have food safety supervisors if they were going to hold a sausage sizzle," she said.
"That was not really the intention of those regulations, so what we've done is we've sought to exempt those businesses or those organisations from having to go through that process."
Ms Gallagher said under the proposed legislation other businesses would be able to register for three-year licences.
"At the moment food businesses have to go through an annual registration process," she said.
"Particularly after feedback from the food industry, they've questioned whether we need to do that every year and for ACT Health to have to update their records.
"In the absence of any change I think it is a sensible approach."
But Ms Gallagher said the Government would continue to regulate large-scale events.
"Like the National Multicultural Festival where a lot of food and high-risk food is sold," she said.
"But for the person who wants to have a handful of sausage sizzles or sell food at sporting events, that is just for fundraising and is a non-government organisation, then they just won't have to go through the processes that were put in place about 18 months ago."
