Food Safety for Home-Based & Cottage Food Businesses

If you sell food you make at home in Australia — cakes, jams, granola, sauces, cottage-style baking — you are generally running a food business under the Food Standards Code, even from your own kitchen. Most home-based operators must notify or register with their local council before trading, work out whether their products are low-risk or potentially hazardous, and label allergens correctly. Requirements vary by state and council, so always confirm locally before you sell. Key takeaways: Selling food you make at home almost always makes you a food business under the Food Standards Code — even for markets, school fetes run commercially, or online orders — so you generally must notify or register with your local council first.. The biggest factor in what you're allowed to make is risk: shelf-stable, low-risk items (many baked goods, jams, dried mixes) are usually far easier to sell from home than potentially hazardous foods that need refrigeration, such as cream-filled cakes, cheesecakes and cooked meats.. Your kitchen is still a domestic space, so councils focus on how you separate business food preparation from family life, pets, and household activity — plan storage, cleaning and no-pet rules around your production times.. Every packaged food you sell must be labelled correctly, and the allergen declaration rules in Standard 1.2.3 — including the Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) requirements — apply in full, with no home-business exemption.. Rules differ significantly between states, territories and individual councils, so confirm your obligations with your local council and state food regulator before you start trading.. What you can typically make from home: Risk category, Typical examples. Generally easier (low-risk, shelf-stable) — Many cakes, biscuits and breads, jams and preserves, honey, chocolates, dried spice mixes, granola. Treated cautiously or often not allowed (potentially hazardous) — Cream- or custard-filled cakes, cheesecakes, fresh cream products, cooked meats and smallgoods, sushi, fresh pasta. Higher-scrutiny / specialised — Home-canned low-acid foods, ferments, bottled sauces and infused oils. Are you actually a 'food business'? (Usually, yes) The moment you sell food to the public — at a market stall, through Instagram or a Facebook group, to a local cafe, or at a fundraiser run in a business-like way — you are generally operating a food business under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, even though you cook at home. Being small, part-time, or 'just a hobby that got popular' does not usually change that. What matters is that food is being sold to others, so the same core obligations around safe handling, cleanliness and labelling apply to your kitchen bench as to a commercial one. Genuine one-off, not-for-profit fundraisers (a school cake stall, a sausage sizzle for charity) are often treated more leniently by councils, but this varies — confirm with your council rather than assuming you're exempt. Selling online, at markets, to cafes/retailers, or via subscription boxes generally counts as a food business. Regularity and profit-seeking push you further toward 'business' status, but even irregular selling can count. Charitable and one-off community events are sometimes treated differently — check locally, don't assume. Where you sell (interstate, online nationally) can bring more than one jurisdiction's rules into play. Registering or notifying your home kitchen Most home-based food businesses must tell their local council they exist before trading. Under Standard 3.2.2, food businesses are generally required to notify the relevant authority of their details and activities, and many councils require a formal registration or approval for a home-based operation. The council typically wants to know what you'll make, how you'll handle higher-risk steps, and how your home kitchen is set up. An environmental health officer may inspect before you start or shortly after. Because notification and registration systems differ by state and council, use your council's home-based food business process (or the national ABLIS service at ablis.business.gov.au) to find exactly what applies to your address. Notification is the baseline obligation under Standard 3.2.2 for most food businesses. Many councils add a home-based registration, approval or annual fee on top of notification. Expect questions about your menu, water supply, pets, storage and cleaning. An environmental health officer may inspect your kitchen — book this in early, not after you've taken orders. Requirements and fees vary widely by council, so confirm with yours directly. What you can and can't make from home The single biggest factor in what a council will let you produce at home is food safety risk. Low-risk, shelf-stable foods that don't need refrigeration to stay safe — many cakes, biscuits, breads, jams and preserves, honey, chocolates, dried spice mixes and granola — are generally the easiest to sell from a home kitchen, because they don't rely on tight temperature control. Potentially hazardous foods, which must be kept refrigerated or hot to stay safe, are treated far more cautiously and are sometimes not permitted from a domestic kitchen at all. These generally include cream- or custard-filled cakes, cheesecakes, fresh cream products, cooked meats and smallgoods, sushi, fresh pasta, and many sauces and dressings that aren't acidified or shelf-stable. Some products — for example certain preserved, canned, fermented or acidified foods — carry specialised risks (such as Clostridium botulinum in low-acid canned or bottled goods) and may require validated recipes or extra approvals. Generally easier from home: shelf-stable baked goods, jams and preserves, honey, confectionery, dried mixes. Treated cautiously or often not allowed: cream/custard cakes, cheesecakes, cooked meats, sushi, fresh dairy products. Higher-scrutiny/specialised: home-canned low-acid foods, ferments, bottled sauces and infused oils. Always check whether your specific product is classed as 'potentially hazardous' — this drives most of the rules. Separating business food from domestic use Because your kitchen is also where your household lives, cooks and (often) keeps pets, councils pay close attention to how you separate commercial production from everyday domestic use. You generally don't need a fully separate commercial kitchen, but you do need to demonstrate control: cleaning and sanitising surfaces and equipment before you start a production run, keeping pets out of the kitchen while you prepare and package, storing business ingredients and finished products so they can't be contaminated by household items, and avoiding preparing business food while cooking a family meal at the same time. If anyone in the household is unwell, you should not be handling food for sale. Good separation is as much about scheduling and cleaning routines as it is about physical space. Clean and sanitise all contact surfaces and equipment before each production run. Keep pets completely out of the kitchen during preparation, cooking and packaging. Store business ingredients and finished products separately from household food and chemicals. Don't prepare food for sale while household members are eating, cooking, or moving through the kitchen. Don't handle food for sale if you or anyone in the home has vomiting, diarrhoea or an infected wound. Labelling and allergen rules Packaged food you sell generally has to be labelled to meet the Food Standards Code, and there is no home-business exemption from the allergen rules. Under Standard 1.2.3 — updated by the Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) requirements — you must declare specified allergens using prescribed plain-English names, in bold in the ingredient list and in a separate 'Contains' summary statement. The allergens that must be declared include added sulphites (in certain amounts), cereals containing gluten (such as wheat), crustacea, egg, fish, milk, molluscs, peanuts, sesame, soy, lupin, and each tree nut named separately. Beyond allergens, labels for packaged food generally need the food name, an ingredient list, the name and business address of the supplier, batch/lot identification for recall, and (for most foods) a date mark and any storage or use directions. Food you make and pack to a customer's order at a market can have slightly different requirements from pre-packaged retail stock, so check what applies to your sales channel. Never make unverified health or 'free-from' claims. Declare allergens per Standard 1.2.3 and the PEAL format — allergen rules apply fully to home businesses. Include food name, ingredient list, supplier name and address, and batch/lot code for recall. Add date marking and storage/use-by directions where required for the product. Be accurate about 'gluten-free' or 'nut-free' claims — cross-contact in a shared home kitchen makes these hard to guarantee. Check whether your product is 'packaged' or 'made and packed on request', as labelling requirements can differ. Skills, water, waste and pest control Home operators are still expected to meet the general food-handling duties in Standard 3.2.2: food handlers should have the skills and knowledge for the food they make, premises and equipment must be kept clean and in good repair (Standard 3.2.3), and you must control pests and manage waste. In practice that means a safe potable water supply, hand-washing facilities you can use hygienically during production, a fridge and probe thermometer if you handle anything temperature-sensitive, and sound cleaning and pest-control routines. Some states and councils require a nominated Food Safety Supervisor or completion of food safety training even for home-based operations, particularly if you handle potentially hazardous food — confirm whether that applies to you. Food handler skills and knowledge appropriate to your products (Standard 3.2.2). Clean, well-maintained premises and equipment, and effective pest control (Standard 3.2.3). Potable water, hygienic hand-washing, and correct chilling if handling temperature-sensitive food. A calibrated probe thermometer where temperature control is a safety step. Check whether a Food Safety Supervisor or formal training is required in your state/council. Worked examples: Turning a cake hobby into sales: A home baker starts taking paid cake orders through Instagram. Because selling to the public generally makes them a food business under the Code, they use their council's home-based food business process to notify or register before taking paid orders, and stick to shelf-stable buttercream and plain cakes rather than cream- or custard-filled ones that need refrigeration and may not be permitted from a domestic kitchen. Checklist: Confirmed with your council whether you must notify, register or seek approval to sell from home. Worked out which of your products are potentially hazardous versus low-risk and shelf-stable. Confirmed your specific products are permitted from a domestic kitchen (or found an alternative). Cleaning and sanitising routine in place before every production run. Pets excluded from the kitchen during all preparation, cooking and packaging. Business ingredients and finished products stored separately from household food and chemicals. Labels include food name, ingredients, allergens in the PEAL format (Standard 1.2.3), supplier name/address, batch code and date marking as required. A calibrated probe thermometer and working fridge if you handle temperature-sensitive food. Checked whether a Food Safety Supervisor or food safety training is required in your state/council. Simple supplier and batch records kept so you could support a recall. Common mistakes: Assuming a small or part-time home operation isn't a 'food business' and skipping council notification. Selling potentially hazardous items (cream cakes, cheesecakes, cooked meats) from home without checking whether they're even permitted. Preparing food for sale while pets are in the kitchen or the family is cooking and eating. Leaving allergens off labels, ignoring the PEAL format, or making 'gluten-free'/'nut-free' claims a shared home kitchen can't guarantee. Forgetting batch/lot identification and date marking, which makes a recall impossible to manage. Copying another operator's setup from a different state or council and assuming the same rules apply to you. Handling food for sale while unwell, or without proper hand-washing facilities available during production. State and territory notes: All states/territories: Notification, registration, permitted products, fees and any Food Safety Supervisor requirement differ significantly between states, territories and individual councils; confirm your obligations with your local council and state food regulator before trading. National tool: Use your council's home-based food business process, or the national ABLIS service at ablis.business.gov.au, to find exactly what applies to your address.