Australian Food Safety Week 2026, Food Safety Advice, And The Importance of Reading Food Labels for Safer Food
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Australian Food Safety Week 2026 is a chance to rethink what causes food poisoning. Most Australians who remember being sick from food blame the last thing they ate, but that meal is probably not the culprit. By changing how you store and cook food, you can protect yourself and anyone who eats your cooking from food poisoning. When you know which food is still safe to eat, you can also reduce food waste in your home.
What Is Australian Food Safety Week 2026?
Australian Food Safety Week takes place from 7 to 14 November 2026. It is organised by the Food Safety Information Council, a health promotion charity focused on food safety advice. The campaign’s goal is to reduce foodborne illness at home through simple steps anyone can take in their own kitchen.
Eating raw or lightly cooked food can raise your chance of food poisoning. How far that chance rises depends on where food poisoning bacteria are in the food. Most of the time, the bacteria is on the outside, but mince, sausages, chicken, and rolled roasts can have them all the way through. Where the bacteria is in your food can lead to different risks.
The Risk of Food Poisoning and The Temperature Danger Zone
An estimated 4.67 million cases of food poisoning in Australia each year lead to 47,900 hospitalisations and 38 deaths. The food safety advice released for Australian Food Safety Week is aimed at the food Australians store and cook at home.
In food kept between 5°C and 60°C, food poisoning bacteria can grow to levels that make you sick. That range is called the temperature danger zone. Keep cold food cold at or below 5°C in your fridge and hot food at 60°C or hotter until you serve it. Divide freshly cooked food into small, shallow containers and refrigerate or freeze them as soon as the food stops steaming.
Add up the minutes time perishable food spends in the temperature danger zone, including the trip home from the shops and the time it stays on the table. Put the food back in your fridge if that total is under 2 hours. Eat it straight away if the figure is between 2 and 4 hours. Throw it out after 4 hours.
What Does A Food Label Tell You?
Only 3 in 10 Australian consumers said they always check the cooking and storage instructions on packaged food. Suppliers are required by law to include that advice on their labels. Checking it before you cook is one of the simple steps promoted during Australian Food Safety Week.
Follow the cooking instructions on the packet for your chosen appliance, whether that is a cooktop, an oven, a microwave, or an air fryer. In 2024, 44% of air fryer owners only occasionally found instructions for their appliance on crumbed packaged food. Use the cooking guide in your air fryer’s manual if no air fryer method appears on the packet.
Use By vs Best Before Dates
Up to a third of Australian consumers are unclear about what date labels mean. If you mix up use-by and best-before dates, you can end up eating food that is no longer safe or throwing out food that is still good to eat.
A use-by date is a safety limit. Food past that date may pose a health risk and cannot legally be sold. Eat it or cook it into a meal and freeze it in shallow containers before then.
A best-before date is about quality. You can still eat food after that date if you have kept it in the conditions on its label and it looks and smells as expected. Its taste, texture, or nutrition may have dropped by then.
Use-by and best-before dates only apply to food stored according to its label. Follow the storage instructions on each packet, such as keeping the contents refrigerated below 4°C, frozen below −15°C, or in a cool, dry place.
Using a Thermometer And Other Tips For Safer Food
Use a fridge thermometer to check that your fridge stays between 4°C and 5°C. Adjust its temperature control if the reading goes above 5°C. Keep raw and cooked food apart by storing raw meat and chicken in covered containers on the bottom shelf of your fridge. Their juices can contaminate food on the shelves beneath them.
Defrost frozen food in your fridge. Wash your hands with soap and running water for 20 seconds and dry them for another 20 seconds before handling food. Repeat the wash after you touch raw meat, chicken, or eggs. Rinse raw fruit and salad vegetables under the tap before you eat them.
A digital meat thermometer is the first recommendation in the official advice for Australian Food Safety Week 2026. Push its tip into the centre of your food to check the temperature. Safe cooking temperatures there include:
- 63°C for whole pieces of meat such as beef, lamb, and kangaroo steaks, chops, and roasts
- 70°C for pork steaks and pieces, and 70°C to 75°C for pork roasts
- 75°C for sausages, mince, chicken and other poultry, rolled roasts, liver, and other offal
- 75°C for reheated leftovers
- 63°C for fish fillets, or until the flesh flakes easily
- 72°C for eggs and egg dishes such as quiche, or until the white is firm and the yolk thickens
Let whole cuts of beef, lamb, kangaroo, and pork stand for 3 to 5 minutes after cooking. Serve cooked meat on a clean plate with fresh utensils.
Learn Safe Food Handling With Hospitality Training
Australian Food Safety Week 2026 comes and goes in a week but food prepared for other people needs to be safe every time. Getting it right becomes your responsibility the moment someone else eats what you have made. Our Hospitality Bootcamp includes SITXFSA005 Use hygienic practices for food safety. Enrol to keep plates, cutlery, benches, and your own hands free of the bacteria that cause food poisoning. The people who eat and drink what you make can then enjoy it without worry.
FAQs
How Long After Eating Can Food Poisoning Symptoms Start?
Food poisoning can begin hours, days, or weeks after a meal. Salmonella symptoms usually appear within 8 to 72 hours. The severe form of illness from listeria bacteria can take up to 70 days to start. See a doctor if you are pregnant, elderly, or have a weakened immune system, or if you have frequent or bloody vomiting, bloody stools, diarrhoea for more than three days, severe stomach cramps, a temperature above 38.6°C, signs of dehydration, blurry vision, muscle weakness, or tingling in your arms.
Should You Report Food Poisoning From a Restaurant or Cafe?
Yes. Report it to the food agency in your state or territory so its officers can check the business.
Can Food Poisoning Be Contagious?
Some types are. Norovirus is a virus that causes gastro and spreads easily from person to person, including through food prepared by someone who has it.
