Quality Control and Food Safety Issues in Australian Hospitality Industry

This report discusses the quality control and food safety issues faced by the Australian hospitality industry. It covers the lack of skilled workforce, food and beverage safety issues, key laws and regulations, and recommendations to address the disputes faced by the industry.

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Food and beverage management
Student’s Name
9/11/2019

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Introduction
The growth in the tourism sector and the increasing expectations of the customers has
developed the emerging need for the Australian hospitality industry to incubate innovations
and deliver the best quality services to the customers. The changing trends and the
competitive business environment develop the need to be more responsive towards customer
needs and sustain the edge over the competitors (Prayag and Hosany, 2015).
The additional paragraphs of the report will reflect upon the quality control issues faced by
Australia hospitality industry. It will also cover the issue in food and beverage safety and
key laws and regulations that addresses the issues. Lastly, it will cover the recommendations
to address the disputes faced by Australian Hospitality industry.
Identified Issues Analysis
Quality control issue
The most current issue that is faced by the Australian hospitality industry is lack of skilled
workforce. It is recorded that the employees do not possess the required skills to efficiently
manage the changing expectations of the customers and meet the fluctuations in the
competitive business environment. It is analysed from the view of executive chef at Regatta
Restaurant & Bar is Sydney that the restaurant faces the challenge of lack of qualifies and
skilled personnel which in turn effects the service delivery of hotel. The hotel faces the
challenge of availability of apprentice cooks. (Open Table, 2017).
The consumers at Australia look for high quality food at affordable prices. However the
restaurants are not able to deliver delicious dishes because hiring the creative employees has

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become the major challenge. The chefs are not able to shift their mindset and adapt to
changing customer wants. The lack of trained employees creates the difficulty in enticing the
customers and delivering the quality services (Manning, 2018).
This is turn creates the situation of lower customer satisfaction and lowering the cliental in
the competitive business environment.
Food and beverage safety issue
The major issue in Australia is that the hotels are not adhering to the quality standards and are
not maintaining the personal hygiene to deliver quality food to the customers which in turn
leads to serious issue of food poisoning (Goh and Jie, 2019). It is analysed that the cases of
Salmonella has increased to 15 % in the year 2017. The restaurants at Australia are serving
contaminated food and do not keeps the control over the timing of the perishable foods. The
hotels does not adopt effective cleaning and sanitising procedures for ensuring the food and
beverage safety (Australian Institute of food safety, 2017).
It is reflected from the recent scenario of salmonella outbreak of customers at the Gawler
South bakery. The victims have risen to 49 and 11 victims have been admitted to hospital. It
has hit the people from aged of 2 to 70 years from its chicken type sandwich products. The
bakery did not adopted efficient food handling practices and did not maintained the hygiene
of the staff. Salmonella was found in the foodstuff and environmental tasters of bakery and
the food was undercooked which in turn leads to serious health issues among Australians
consumers (The Advertiser, 2018).
From the above discussed scenarios it is recorded that the Australian hospitality industry does
not focus on adopting efficient food handling practices and does not maintain the hygiene of
the staff. Such violations have increased the health issues at Australia (Amuquandoh, 2016).

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Key Regulations/ Laws
For addressing the issues in the Australian hospitality industry the Queensland government
has designed various laws, regulations and acts to ensure the safety of the consumers.
It includes Food Regulation 2016- It states the details of licensing of food business. It
emphasize on isolation of the contaminated food and display of the licenses through mobile
premises (Queensland Government, 2019).
Another is Food Production (Safety) Act 2000- This act controls the creation of primary
produce and applies food safety scheme that is comprehensive in the Food Production
(Safety) Regulation 2014. The scheme includes perishable goods like dairy produce, egg and
egg products, meat and meat products and seafood (Queensland Government, 2019).
Another is Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code- This code is the national
standard that is accepted by all the states and the territories of Australia in their particular
food legislation. This code includes the legislation related to the advertising, labelling and
composition of food. It lays down the criterions for the food safety and sanitation. It specifies
the fit-out of premises. This code will help in resolving the issues in hospitality industry
(Queensland Government, 2019).
The Food Act 2006 is the main food safety regulation applies in Queensland and relates to
the whole food businesses in Queensland. This act safeguards the safety of the food which is
ready for sale and is acceptable for the human consumption. It ensures to prevent the
misleading conduction to force the sale of goods and emphasize on putting Australia New
Zealand food standards code (Queensland Government, 2019).
Violation of the above mentioned laws and regulation will create difficulty in the operation of
the hospitality industry and will lead to implication of high penalties.

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Recommendations
 In order to address the issues faced by the hospitality industry, the organizations must
focus on developing effective training programmes that help in developing the skills
of the employees and allowing them to deliver excellent customer service. It will
allow them to entice the customers and fulfil their changing demands. The
organizations must focus on hiring the creative employees that are to cook delicious
food and possess the skills of effectively communicating with the customers
(O'Shannessy and Minett, 2016).
 In response to the food and beverage safety the restaurants must focus on adoption of
effective food handling practices. It must focus on cooking the food thoroughly,
segregation of the raw food from the ready to eat food and must focus on maintaining
the hygiene of the employees and the surface. The hospitality industry must be
responsible towards the needs and wants of the customers and must focus on proper
labelling and prevention of the contamination food. This will help in increasing the
awareness of the customers and deliver maximum satisfaction. It must fulfil all the
standards and regulation designed by the Australian government to guarantee the
safety of the food products and deliver the quality products to the consumers (Lai,
Khoo-Lattimore and Wang, 2018).
Conclusion
From the above discussion it is critical to note that the growth in the tourism sector has
increased the competition in the hospitality industry. The increase in competition has resulted
into lack of qualified personnel and in turns creates the issues in the quality management. The
personnel do not possess the skills to entice the customers and deliver maximum satisfaction.

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It is also analysed that the Australians were facing severe health issues due to lack of
adoption of efficient food safety practices. However the hospitality industry must focus on
adhering to all the laws and regulations designed by the government.

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References
Amuquandoh, F.E., (2016) Essentials of Food Safety in the Hospitality Industry. Xlibris
Corporation.
Australian Institute of food safety. (2017) Food Safety Becoming a Serious Issue For South
Australians [Online]. Available from: https://www.foodsafety.com.au/news/food-safety-
south-australia [Accessed 11/9/19].
Goh, E. and Jie, F., (2019) To waste or not to waste: Exploring motivational factors of
Generation Z hospitality employees towards food wastage in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 80, pp.126-135.
Lai, M.Y., Khoo-Lattimore, C. and Wang, Y., (2018) A perception gap investigation into
food and cuisine image attributes for destination branding from the host perspective: The case
of Australia. Tourism Management, 69, pp.579-595.
Manning, L., (2018) Triangulation: effective verification of food safety and quality
management systems and associated organisational culture. Worldwide Hospitality and
Tourism Themes, 10(3), pp.297-312.
Open Table. (2017) The challenges facing the Australian restaurant industry – and how to
overcome them [Online]. Available from:
https://openforbusiness.opentable.com.au/2017/02/23/the-challenges-facing-the-australian-
restaurant-industry-and-how-to-overcome-them/ [Accessed 11/9/19].
O'Shannessy, V. and Minett, D., (2016) The road to hospitality: Skills for the new
professional. Cengage Australia.

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Prayag, G. and Hosany, S., (2015) Human resource development in the hotel industry of
Mauritius: myth or reality? Current Issues in Tourism, 18(3), pp.249-266.
Queensland Government. (2019) Food Act and Food Standards Code [Online]. Available
from: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/public-health/industry-environment/food-safety/
regulation/act-standards [Accessed 11/9/19].
The Advertiser. (2018) Gawler South Bakery salmonella toll rises to 49 with nine victims in
hospital [Online]. Available from:
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/gawler-salmonella-toll-rises-to-35-
with-nine-victims-in-hospital-and-may-rise-further-authorities-warn/news-story/
9db76b930e4f3e2bae40adc1bbf874d9 [Accessed 11/9/19].