If you want to start a home based food business, Council will assess your application on a case by case basis to check if food can be produced safely in your home. There are some food safety issues to consider.

• Food storage – food for your business needs to be separate from household food.
• Equipment storage – equipment needs to be stored so it is protected from contamination, for example, from pests such as cockroaches and mice.
• Transport and delivery – if you are picking up or delivering cold potentially hazardous food, you need to transport it below 5⁰C. It is recommended you use a chilled esky. Hot food needs to be transported above 60⁰C.
• Cold food storage – potentially hazardous food needs to be stored below 5⁰C. Council will assess if you have enough refrigerator space for both your business food and household food. Find out more about temperature control.
• Frozen food storage – frozen food needs to be stored frozen to the touch and in accordance with the directions of the packaging. Council will assess if you have enough freezer space for your business food and household food. 
• Electricity supply – your electricity supply needs to be able to power all of your appliances while you are cooking.
• Cooling – if you are cooking and cooling food in bulk, you need to have enough room in your refrigerator to cool the food in smaller containers.
• Cleaning – all surfaces and equipment that have contact with food need to be cleaned and sanitised. Queensland Health’s Cleaning and sanitising has more information. You will need a chemical sanitiser and a domestic dishwasher. A domestic dishwasher needs to: 
  • have a properly functioning temperature activated sanitising cycle that must sense 65.6⁰C or higher before the machine advances to the next step or 
  • if it does not have a sanitising cycle or time-controlled sanitising cycle and forced airflow drying– be operated with inlet water temperature above 68⁰C.
• Hand washing – you need hand wash facilities with warm, running water and soap and paper towel.
• Children and pets – you need to exclude young children, pets and people who are sick from the food preparation area, when your are preparing food for the business.
• Labelling – food that is packaged for retail sale needs to be labelled. Queensland Health’s Label buster has more information on labelling requirements