Media Response The Age Food Complaints

Published on 16 November 2021

Attribute quotes to Mayor Stuart James.

• how many complaints did you receive from the public in relation to alleged food safety issues in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

  2017 – 239

  2018 – 256

  2019 – 202

  2020 – 215

  2021 – 161 (as at 15 November 2021)

• how many of these complaints did you investigate across each of these years?

  All food safety complaints lodged with Council are investigated

• how many of these complaints resulted in court action and convictions? Could you please provide a year by year breakdown for each of 2017, 2018, 2019,2020 and 2021.

  2017 – 0

  2018 – 0

  2019 – 1

  2020 – 0

  2021 – 0

  Note that the above figures only relate to court action resulting from complaints lodged by members of the public.  Council also launches its own investigations as part of our regular checking of food businesses.  Where there are significant breaches identified, this can also result in Council instigating legal proceedings.  Since 2017, 15 food safety matters have been prosecuted through the courts.

• Do you have any data on the most common complaints or any observations about how complaints have changed over time?

Council has received fewer food poisoning complaints in 2020 and thus far in 2021, in comparison to the previous years.