Food safety software for Australian child care centres. Manage allergen tracking, temperature monitoring, cleaning records and compliance reporting for kids.
If your service prepares or serves food, it operates as a food business under the FSANZ Food Standards Code — mainly Standard 3.2.2 (Food Safety Practices and General Requirements) and Standard 3.2.3 (Food Premises and Equipment) — alongside your state or territory Food Act and any council registration. Because food is served to young children, some regulators and councils apply additional expectations for vulnerable populations. Separately, your service is regulated under the National Quality Framework. Requirements vary by state, territory and council, so check your local food regulator and ACECQA. FoodSafety HQ helps you keep the daily records that prove compliance.
Effective management means holding a current allergen and dietary profile for every enrolled child, linked to their individual medical or anaphylaxis action plan, and making it available to whoever prepares and serves food. It also means avoiding cross-contact through separate preparation, clean and dedicated utensils and surfaces, careful washing, and clear communication to every educator on shift. FoodSafety HQ stores child-specific allergen profiles, cross-references them against your menu, and supports cleaning routines that reduce cross-contact. Always follow each child's medical plan and your service's anaphylaxis policy — this is general guidance, not medical advice.
PEAL stands for Plain English Allergen Labelling, introduced under Standard 1.2.3 of the FSANZ Code to make allergen information clearer and more consistent. For childcare services it reinforces good practice: identifying and clearly communicating the presence of common allergens in the food you serve. FoodSafety HQ uses PEAL-aligned allergen records and lets you generate QR codes so families can view allergen information for your menu.
Typical documented food safety practices include temperature logs (fridge, freezer, milk storage, cooking, cooling and hot-holding), cleaning schedules with sign-offs, delivery and receiving checks, allergen and dietary profiles per child, menu records, waste and expiry tracking, and staff training and certification records. Keeping these consistently is what demonstrates compliance to environmental health officers and NQF assessors. FoodSafety HQ keeps them all in one place and generates audit-ready reports on demand.
Under the NQF, services are assessed and rated against the National Quality Standard, overseen by ACECQA and state and territory regulatory authorities. Food and nutrition sit within Quality Area 2 — Children's Health and Safety, which includes healthy eating and safe, hygienic food practices. Documented, consistent food safety practices help demonstrate this during assessment and rating. Refer to ACECQA and your regulatory authority for the current, definitive requirements; FoodSafety HQ is the tool for keeping the supporting evidence organised.
The temperature danger zone is between 5°C and 60°C, where bacteria multiply fastest. Keep cold food at or below 5°C and hot food being held for service at or above 60°C, and cook or reheat food thoroughly. When food is out of temperature control, the 2-hour / 4-hour rule is a common way to manage safe time limits. FoodSafety HQ provides tap-based logs and out-of-range alerts for fridge, cooking, cooling, reheating and hot-holding temperatures. Check your regulator's guidance for how these limits apply to your service.
Infants and young children have immune systems that are still developing, which makes them more susceptible to foodborne illness and its complications than most adults. That is why childcare kitchens are expected to apply temperature control, hygiene and allergen management especially rigorously, and to keep food handling for bottles, purees and finger foods particularly careful. FoodSafety HQ helps embed these controls into daily routines so nothing depends on memory.
Bottle preparation, storing and warming expressed breast milk or formula, and holding times for prepared bottles all require careful hygiene and temperature handling in line with health guidance. Pureed and mashed foods are handled and reheated often, so clean equipment, good hygiene and correct temperatures are essential. FoodSafety HQ lets you build room-specific checklists for bottle-prep zones, milk storage and infant food preparation so these steps are followed consistently. Always follow current health guidance for infant feeding.
If your service prepares food on-site rather than relying on families to provide it, you are likely operating a food business, and many states and councils require a nominated Food Safety Supervisor. The exact requirement varies by state, territory and council, so check your local food regulator. FoodSafety HQ tracks staff food safety qualifications and certificates and sends reminders before they expire.
Yes. Whether you run a single centre or a group of early childhood services, you can manage every location from one dashboard while keeping each service's records separate for its own assessment and rating and licensing. This gives approved providers group-wide visibility while preserving the individual evidence trail each service needs.