Skai Solutions read a NSW council's own inspection guide: above 15 points or one 8 point critical breach is an unacceptable result, and it brings an improvement notice with a A$330 fee and a deadline as short as 24 hours.
Almost nothing written for operators says what the officer is actually scoring, so the first failure feels arbitrary. It is not. Below: the two thresholds that produce an unacceptable result, every enforcement step that can follow with the amounts we could verify, the four fixes in order of what they cost you, and how often you should expect a visit in Australia and in New Zealand.
Failing is a number, not an opinion, and the number is published. An environmental health officer works through the Food Premises Assessment Report, nine sections covering general requirements, food handling controls, health and hygiene, cleaning and sanitising, temperature measurement and single use items, animals and pests, design and construction, maintenance, and miscellaneous. Each breach carries points.
Two things produce an unacceptable result, from a NSW council's own food inspection and food safety guide, published June 2020:
That second line is the one operators get wrong. You cannot average your way out of one critical finding. A spotless kitchen with food held at the wrong temperature fails on the strength of that one item, and no grade is awarded.
It also explains why the officer's manner tells you nothing. The score is arithmetic done on a form. A pleasant conversation and an unacceptable result are entirely compatible.
Less than most operators fear on the first failure and far more than they expect if they do nothing. The sequence is laid out below with the amounts we could verify.
| What follows | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Improvement notice | Lists what to fix and by when, anywhere from 24 hours to six months | A$330 in the council guide above, which covers administration and the follow up inspection |
| Penalty notice | On the spot fine, normally for a severe or repeated breach, or where you were warned | Set by offence. Under Food Regulation 2025 Schedule 2, no food safety supervisor appointed is A$440 for an individual and A$880 for a corporation, and failing to notify your business details is A$660 and A$1,320 |
| Prohibition order | Stops you trading, or stops one food or one piece of equipment, for 24 hours or indefinitely | No fee. The cost is the trading you lose |
| Named publicly | Penalty notices and prosecutions appear on the NSW Food Authority register | No fee. It is permanent and searchable |
| Prosecution | Court, for continued non compliance | Court maxima under the Food Act, which run to 50 penalty units for an individual and 100 for a corporation on the supervisor offences alone |
The A$330 is the number worth holding on to, and not because it is large. It covers the follow up inspection, which means fixing the list is not a second bill. The expensive outcome is not the notice. It is the prohibition order, because a venue shut on a Friday loses a weekend of trading that no fine schedule prices.
Confirm that fee with your own council before you budget it. The guide it comes from is dated June 2020, councils set their own administration fees, and the one thing we would not assume is that a five year old fee has stayed still.
The nine FPAR sections are not nine equal risks. The critical breaches cluster in a handful of places, and in the order below they cost nothing, then almost nothing, then money.
Done in that order, three of the four cost you attention rather than money, which is the point of ordering them that way.
Then the problem is not the list, it is the premises or the process, and there are only three honest moves left.
Ask for the FPAR itself, in writing, section by section. You are entitled to know which section scored and on what. A verbal summary at the counter is not enough to fix anything, and officers will usually walk a cooperative operator through it.
Fix the design problem rather than the symptom. A hand basin in the wrong place, a floor that cannot be cleaned, a cool room that cannot hold 5C in February: those score every single visit, and no amount of cleaning changes the score. Design and construction is its own FPAR section for exactly that reason.
If you are facing a prohibition order, get advice before you reopen rather than after. Trading in breach of an order is a different order of problem from the breach that caused it, and the register entry that follows a prosecution does not expire. If a customer complaint triggered the visit, our page on a customer food poisoning complaint covers what happens on that path.
In New South Wales, the routine frequency is a starting point set by risk. From the same council guide: 12 months for a medium risk hospitality premises, which is what a cafe, restaurant or takeaway is, and 12 months for a low risk business selling only pre-packaged shelf stable food. Six months if you are high risk, which means large scale, or doing a high risk process such as raw egg products, pate or sous vide, or serving vulnerable customers in childcare or aged care.
So a normal cafe sees an officer about once a year, and a sous vide menu doubles that. Failing brings a follow up visit inside the improvement notice window regardless.
New Zealand runs on a different instrument and the difference is worth knowing if you operate both sides of the Tasman. Auckland Council verifies a new food business usually within six weeks of the registration being approved, then sets frequency from your previous results and your risk level, with businesses that consistently manage food safety well checked less often. Findings are recorded as Corrective Action Requests with an agreed timeframe rather than a points score.
And one structural difference nobody mentions: Auckland quotes verification at an hourly rate and invoices you after the visit, so the cost depends on your size, the complexity of your processes and how long the officer is there. In New Zealand the inspection has a variable price. In Australia the routine one does not, and only the failure does. The registration side is on our pages for food business registration cost and the NZ food control plan.
One thing, and it is the thing that happens on the day. An officer arrives unannounced, usually mid morning, and takes your manager away from the floor for an hour or more. During that hour the phone rings and nobody answers it, and the same is true of the hour you spend afterwards reading the report. Nobody books a table into an unanswered phone.
A Skai Solutions AI phone agent answers every call, takes the booking straight into your system and keeps working while you are walking an inspector through the cool room. It goes live in five days. It will not raise your score. It means the inspection costs you the inspection and not the bookings as well.
What happens if you fail a council food safety inspection?
You receive an improvement notice listing what to fix and a deadline that can run from 24 hours to six months. In the NSW council guide we read, the notice carries a A$330 fee which covers administration and the follow up inspection. Severe or repeated breaches bring a penalty notice instead, and serious risk brings a prohibition order that can stop you trading.
What score fails a food safety inspection?
A cumulative score above 15 points, or any single critical breach worth 8 points on its own, gives an unacceptable result and no grade is awarded. The second rule is the one that catches operators: one critical finding fails the inspection no matter how good the rest of the report is.
How often does a council inspect a restaurant in Australia?
About once every 12 months for a cafe, restaurant or takeaway, which councils class as medium risk hospitality. Every 6 months if you are large scale, run a high risk process such as sous vide, pate or raw egg products, or serve vulnerable customers in childcare or aged care. Those are starting frequencies and a failure brings an extra visit.
Do I have to pay for a re-inspection?
In the council guide we read, no. The A$330 improvement notice fee is described as covering administrative costs and a follow up inspection, so the return visit is inside the original fee. Councils set their own fees and that guide is dated June 2020, so confirm the current amount with your own council rather than assuming.
Can a council close my restaurant after an inspection?
Yes, through a prohibition order. It can stop the business trading entirely, or stop you making one particular food or using one particular piece of equipment, for 24 hours or indefinitely until the problem is resolved. It carries no fee, which is misleading, because a closed weekend costs more than any fine in the schedule.
Will a failed inspection be made public?
Penalty notices and prosecutions are published on the NSW Food Authority's register, and a business may be listed there after a penalty notice or a prosecution. An improvement notice on its own is not the same thing as being named. The register is searchable and entries do not expire.
Who inspects restaurants for food safety?
In most of Australia your local council's environmental health officers do the routine inspections, with the state food regulator handling higher risk sectors and the penalty notice and prosecution registers. In New Zealand it is a recognised verifier, which for most Auckland venues is Auckland Council, working to your food control plan under the Food Act 2014.
How is a New Zealand verification different from an Australian inspection?
Two ways. Findings are written as Corrective Action Requests with an agreed timeframe rather than scored as points, and the verification is charged at an hourly rate and invoiced afterwards, so its cost varies with your size and how long it takes. Auckland Council usually verifies a new business within six weeks of the registration being approved.