Food and Beverage Safety Issues in Australian Hospitality Industry

The report discusses the food and beverage safety issues in the Australian hospitality industry, including hygiene, preservatives, and regulations. It also provides solutions to eliminate the risks and recommendations for the industry.

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Healthcare
1/13/2019

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Australian Hospitality Industry..................................................................................................3
Food and beverage safety issues................................................................................................3
Extremely Hygienic Workplace:............................................................................................3
No added preservatives:.........................................................................................................4
Food safety laws and regulations...............................................................................................4
Solutions to eliminate the food and beverage safety risks.........................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the food and beverage management and the related
aspects in context to the Australian Hospitality industry. The Food and beverage industry is
categorised into two major segments, production, and distribution, and includes the
operations of processing food (Augustin et al., 2016). Thus, the report will mention the food
and beverage safety issues, in Australia, with the key laws and regulations established for
addressing the issue. Moreover, in the later part of the report, there will be discussion of the
solutions to identify, and minimise the issues related to food and beverage safety within
country.
Australian Hospitality Industry
Australian Food and beverage industry has been a major contributor and considered as largest
manufacturing sector. The key food and beverage division consist of meat, grains, dairy,
horticulture, seafood, confectionery, and other beverages including wine. The industry has
been a major part of the Australian economy in terms of both financial contribution, and
employment to the people (Huang et al., 2017).
Food and beverage safety issues
The food and beverage industry at Australia has undergone dramatic changes over the past
decades leading to two major challenges or issues faced by the food and beverage
management industry in Australia:
Extremely Hygienic Workplace:
It is one of the major issues in the food and beverage safety within the hospitality industry.
The industry manufactures products for the human consumption, thus it is necessary for the
food and beverage manufacturers to enforce the hygiene and effective handling of equipment
under the standards of food safety (Corbo et al., 2014). Failure to do this, leads to the
production of contaminated food, product recalls, foreign material complaints, outbreaks and
infections. Thus, it states that the issue causes problems to the workers, further leading to
consumers. Furthermore, these issues lead to a negative influence on the health of the
consumers, thereby affecting the growth and revenue of the hospitality industry (Meyer et al.,
2017).

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Thus, there needs to be an increasing awareness to ensure high food and beverage safety in
the following aspects, undertaking various measures:
 Control on the pest: Adopting of the pest detection, and control systems with or without
use of chemicals, as there must be proper handling of food to avoid contamination.
 Cleaning: Regular cleaning and disinfection is important to maintain high standards of
food hygiene and reduction of outbreak due to foodborne illness.
 Personal hygiene: Compliance to the written and strict protocols for the personal
cleanliness of staff.
 Staff training: To provide essential education and training to the staff for their own safety,
in order to preserve the integrity of plant and products (Christiansen, 2018).
No added preservatives:
The second issue which has been highlighted here is ‘no added preservatives’ which impacts
the customer’s health and wellbeing. Nowadays, customers are aware about the food
associated disorders which occur due to added preservatives in the food items. Thus, they
have made changes in their lifestyle, diet, determining consciousness towards health
(Ferguson et al., 2016). Preservatives are used to increase the shelf life of the food products,
but they lead to spoilage and contamination of foods. The food must be removed which do
not contains the label of ‘healthy’ and they must avoid the artificial constituents from the
food products. The industry must focus on satisfying their customer’s demand by adding
value to the food products along with ensuring taste. Thus, focusing on the safety and
security of the food products in the industry can ensure effective food tracing (Kwong et al.,
2016).
Food safety laws and regulations
Some of the key food safety standards or regulations has been established which ensures
effective management of food and beverage to address the issue.
 Standards code, which has been administered by FSANZ, states that the food must be
labelled for both country of origin, and ingredients. The code performs the work of
regulating both packaged and non-packaged foods in the Australian market
(Bumbudsanpharoke and Ko, 2015).
 In the year 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ensured the
commitment to “Produce safety from production to consumption to reduce any

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foodborne illness in context to ingesting directed towards ensuring food quality
(Kotsanopoulos and Arvanitoyannis, 2017).
 The food safety Regulation, 1994 has set out the definition to efficiently deliver
organic food products to the customers of Australia (ACT Government, 2018).
 They must also emphasize on adopting the use of food products, along with avoiding
the use of colour and other ingredients such as additives, processing aids, and
increasing the vitamins, minerals, and the composition of dairy products (NS
Robinson and Getz, 2014).
 The role of FSANZ (Food standards Australia New Zealand’s) has been towards
maintaining a safe food supply which further protects the health and safety of people
living in Australia and New Zealand. To develop and amend the standards for food,
providing risk assessment advice on the imported food within country, to lead
manufacturers ensure food safety to consumers (Nayak and Waterson, 2017).
In addition, some of the key regulations also include the “Communicable Disease Network of
Australia” which monitors different situations of foodborne illness, as it may further lead to a
positive impact on health through a reduction of the unsafe food practices.
Solutions to eliminate the food and beverage safety risks
From the above discussion it has been understood that there are certain laws, or regulations
which determines the food safety standards, and provides solutions for elimination of these
risks. The food manufacturers must focus on effective food control systems to enhance the
food and beverage safety (Nayak and Waterson, 2017).
Implementation of Hazard Analysis and Critical control point (HACCP) acts as a preventive
approach or solution to safeguard and control the risk safety issues leading to prevention from
negative impact on health. The tool which has been designed fulfils the purpose through
facilitating the activities such as sanitation, and hygiene, effective management of waste,
storage, and transportation, even in the homes (Ozdemir and Caliskan, 2014).
On the other hand, implementation of ISO 22000 serves as another solution towards
minimising the food and beverage safety risks. It refers to a food safety management system.
The ISO 22000 provides the base for a firm’s compliance to the documentation, and
procedural standards, for the processing and production of food products (Silva, Fonseca and
Sousa, 2016).

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Cleanliness and ensuring sanitation in the handling of all the necessary equipment is an
important step or measure towards maintaining high standards of food and beverage safety
(Marriott, Schilling and Gravani, 2018).
Recommendations
 One of the significant suggestions in context to the above analysis of food and
beverage safety is that the manufacturers must ensure effective monitoring solutions
to safeguard the compliance to the health and hygiene.
 Development of effective food system with proper hygiene for the food and beverage
industry, which is one of the critical features to reduce the risk of cross-contamination
(Chen et al., 2015).
 The producers must focus upon identification of the public health needs through
conducting surveillance and risk analysis within the organisation.
 It is recommended that the Australian food and beverage firms, enhance the
development of Hazard analysis and Critical control Point, which assures assistance
for protecting and promoting health and hygiene (Amchova et al., 2015).
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the food and beverage safety issue
has become one of the major challenge in the modern hospitality industry. Thus, the food
manufacturers must focus on adopting healthy and effective food processing or production
system. In addition, the report has mentioned several measures which must be complied with
to ensure the quality food products, and sound health of the customers.

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References
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Bumbudsanpharoke, N. and Ko, S., 2015. Nano‐food packaging: an overview of market,
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