Food businesses opting in for Eat Safe Ipswich program

Food businesses opting in for Eat Safe Ipswich program

20 August 2018

Seventy per cent of food businesses have voluntarily opted in to the East Safe Ipswich program.

Ipswich City Council’s Health and Amenity Plan 2017-18 end-of-year report notes the introduction of the voluntary food safety program as one of the highlights of the year.

Heath, Security and Community Safety Committee Chairperson Cr Sheila Ireland said Eat Safe Ipswich, a voluntary food safety program, began its implementation in 2018. The official launch of the program is expected to be in October.

Cr Ireland said there are 795 eligible food businesses in Ipswich.

“To date 485 inspections have taken place between February and June to provide an assessment and determine the business’s star rating. Of those already assessed, 70 per cent have opted in to the voluntary Eat Safe Ipswich program,” she said.

“The Eat Safe program is a system where a licenced food business would receive a food star rating based on compliance with the Food Act 2006 and Food Safety Standards. The objective of the Eat Safe program is to increase and reward compliance, which will in turn optimise service delivery.

“It is a voluntary program. If a business calculates a 3 star or above rating they can opt-in to have their results publicly displayed.”

Cr Ireland stressed businesses and customers should realise it is a hygiene 5 star rating system, not a food quality 5 star rating.

The end-of-year report said key food licence information is now available in the following languages on council’s website: Vietnamese; Japanese; simplified and traditional Chinese.

“A comprehensive review and updating of council’s website for compliance content was completed to be more user friendly and customer centric. This will be an ongoing process to ensure information remains relevant and consistent,” she said.

In other report highlights, roaming dog complaints have remained steady compared to previous years with an average of 118 complaints raised each month in 2017-2018 compared to 124 in 2016-2017.

Illegal dumping on footpath complaints increased by 180 complaints in 2017-2018 compared to 2016-2017.

“Significant promotion of how leaving items on footpaths such as lounges and tables (outside of kerbside collection dates) is illegal has meant more residents contacted council to raise service requests,” she said.

Other activities for the Health, Security and Regulatory Services Department in 2017-2018 included:

Investigation of 97 dangerous structure complaints.Inaugural Youth Sustainability Summit held at the Civic Centre in October 2017.Cleared 1194 overgrown properties (increase of 17% compared to previous year).44 sites registered for Clean Up Australia Day 2018.Best Friends Forever book launched in April at the Ipswich Library.1689 illegal parking complaints investigated.635 abandoned or hazardous vehicles collected from the streets of Ipswich (increase of 18% compared to previous year).Two impounded vehicle auctions held.80% reduction of graffiti as a result of strategically placed, temporary deployed cameras in Council parks.152 swimming pool compliance safety inspections completed.Investigated 159 stormwater/overland flow complaints.Returned 1349 dogs to their owners.480 proactive sediment and erosion inspections were conducted at building and development sites.Removed 67 illegal advertising signs from the roadways of Ipswich.Delivered 23 responsible pet ownership sessions to 829 children from pre prep to year 7.

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