Food safety auditors

What is a food safety auditor?

The role of a food safety auditor is to:

• provide advice to local governments about accreditation of food safety programs
• conduct audits of accredited food safety programs
• prepare audit reports and provide copies to the local government and the holder of the accredited food safety program.

Auditors approved under the Food Act 2006 do not have any enforcement powers and cannot require a food business to make any changes to their food safety program or the food business.

Only Queensland Health or local government officers have the authority under the Act to direct a food business to make any changes to their operations.

Responsibilities

In Queensland, food safety auditors are regulated by either Queensland Health or Safe Food Production Queensland depending on the sector they are working in, for example, the primary production sector or manufacturer/retailer sector.

Queensland Health oversees auditors under the Food Act 2006 for hospitals, nursing homes, childcare centres and catering activities.

Safe Food Production Queensland regulates auditors under the Food (Production) Safety Act 2000 for primary production operations such as butchers, dairies and egg producers.

Only approved auditors can conduct audits of accredited food safety programs for the legislation they have been approved under. This legislative auditing is different from auditing for the purposes of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) or other industry certification requirements.

Training and qualifications

Applications are assessed using nationally consistent criteria defined in the National regulatory food safety auditor guideline and policy.

To become an approved auditor, applicants must provide evidence that they have successfully completed:

• a certificate IV or higher in food science or a related field
• 40 hours of recognised training in food microbiology, this can be part of an existing qualification or completed as an independent unit
• national competency units:
  • Communicate and negotiate to conduct food safety audits—FBPAUD4002 (supersedes FDFAU4002A and FDFFSCOMA)
  • Conduct food safety audits—FBPAUD4003 (supersedes FDFAU4003A and FDFFSCFSAA)
  • Identify, evaluate and control food safety hazards—FBPAUD4004 (supersedes FDFAU4004A and FDFFSCHZA).

Applicants must also demonstrate they:

• have the necessary expertise or experience to perform the functions of an auditor
• are a suitable person to be an auditor.

Specialised scopes of approval

To obtain specialised scopes of approval, in addition to those listed above, applicants need to show evidence of completion of the following competency units:

• Audit a cook chill process—FBPAUD5002 (supersedes FDFAU4006A and FDFFSCC4A)
• Audit a heat treatment process (including canning and pasteurisation) FBPAUD5003 (supersedes FDFAU4007B and FDFAU4007A and FDFFSHT4A)

Competency codes and titles are set by the National Quality Council and may change.

Applying to be a food safety auditor

To become an auditor in Queensland, you need to complete the application form and submit it with the fees and required documentation to the relevant agency.

Vulnerable populations and catering

To become an auditor under the Food Act 2006 for hospitals, nursing homes, child care or catering activities, or to manage your approval, refer to the following application forms:

• Application for approval (new applications)
• Application for renewal of approval
• Application to amend conditions of approval

Fees are automatically indexed on 1 October each year. For the current fee, refer to the schedule of fees.

As part of your application, the Department of Health will undertake a national criminal history check. Applicants who do not consent to a criminal history check, will be deemed as not fulfilling the requirements of the assessment process.

Primary production

To be an auditor under the Food (Production) Safety Act 2000 for primary production operations such as butchers, dairies and egg producers, visit the Safe Food Production Queensland website.

Approved auditor registers

• Queensland Health register of approved auditors
  This register contains auditor names and contact details, scopes of approval, expiry date of the approval and the local government areas of service.
• Safe Food Production Queensland auditor register
  This register is for auditing primary production and processing food businesses. It contains the auditor names and scopes of approval.

Guidelines, tips and forms

For guidelines, tips for better practice, auditing forms and templates go to food auditor resources.