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Standard 3.2.2A applies to specified Australian food-service, catering and retail activities involving unpackaged, potentially hazardous, ready-to-eat food. Category one businesses need three management tools; category two needs two. Here is how to check which records and training obligations apply to your cafe.
Sources checked 2026-09-09 · your local authority always has the final say.
3.2.2A · the essentials
Category depends on your food-handling activities. Your council or state authority can confirm your classification.
Category one covers caterers and food-service businesses that process unpackaged potentially hazardous food into ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food. Category two covers retailers selling potentially hazardous, ready-to-eat food received unpackaged, where onsite handling is limited to activities such as slicing, weighing, repacking, reheating or hot-holding. Selling only sealed, pre-packaged food does not by itself make a business category two.
Category one businesses need all three management tools: food handler training, a food safety supervisor, and substantiation. Category two businesses need the first two.
What each tool means in practice:
For prescribed activities, record the date, the food or activity, and how the control was met. Cover receiving, storage, processing, display, transport, and cleaning and sanitising as applicable. Records required by the evidence tool must be retained for at least three months; an authorised officer may accept another way of demonstrating control.
ProCafe lets you configure checks, attach evidence and export the resulting records. Review the starter checks against your operation, including any transport and two-stage cooling steps; software does not establish that a control was followed.
Common questions
It depends on your activities. Processing unpackaged potentially hazardous food into ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food can put a food-service business in category one. Retailing food received unpackaged with only limited handling can be category two. Some activities are excluded, including businesses required to implement Standard 3.2.1 programs. Confirm with your regulator.
Records or another demonstration accepted by an authorised officer for the prescribed controls. Required records have a minimum three-month retention period; check whether other requirements mean keeping them longer.
The FSS must have been certified within the past five years through a registered training organisation, and must be reasonably available to supervise food handling. Some states (like NSW) run their own FSS certification schemes with their own recertification detail — check your state authority.
Complete the food safety supervisor training through a registered training organisation — the certificate must be from within the past five years to count. In states that run their own schemes, such as NSW, the training must come from an approved provider and the state authority handles verification and recertification, so start from your state authority's FSS pages.
The FSS is the certified person who supervises day-to-day food handling — reasonably available while food is being handled, able to recognise and prevent the hazards in your operation, and the one who keeps handling practices in line with your procedures. In most cafes it's the owner or a senior member of the kitchen team.
Usually not — the phrase covers two different things. Basic food handler training is what every food handler needs under 3.2.2A, and free online options exist, with states like Queensland, NSW and Victoria running their own portals. The food safety supervisor certificate is the deeper, certified credential one nominated person holds, issued through a registered training organisation within the past five years. Check which one a job or your council actually means before paying for a course.
Keep going
Links verified 2026-09-09. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.
More guides: Food safety programs (AU) · Safe temperatures (AU)
ProCafe turns these checks into clean, time-stamped records on your team's phones — organised by site and ready to show at an inspection.
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