Selling food from home in New South Wales

At a glance

Who regulates you

In New South Wales, who regulates you depends on who you sell to, not only where you live.

• Direct to the person eating it - Local council (direct-to-consumer).
• Selling to a business to on-sell - NSW Food Authority (not direct / wholesale).

Notification via council permit/approval application when selling direct to the final customer; NSW Food Authority pathway when not direct (wholesale to a business to on-sell). Licence may also be required for high-risk manufacture, case by case.

Home-based preparation can be allowed, but being home-based does not exempt you from the Food Standards Code. The regulator can still assess whether the premises and activity are suitable.

What counts as a food business

The definition under the Food Act 2003 (NSW) is broader than a café, bakery or commercial kitchen.

One-off sales still count

The rules can apply whether you sell regularly or on only one occasion. Running a stall once rather than every weekend does not, by itself, take the activity outside the definition.

Charitable and community sales still count

A business does not have to operate for profit to fall within the Food Act 2003 (NSW). Charitable and community organisations that sell food can still be food businesses.

Growing the food yourself does not necessarily exempt the sale

Primary food production is generally excluded from the food-business definition. Growing, raising, cultivating, picking, harvesting and collecting food can sit in that carve-out.

Direct sale or service of food to the public is often carved out of that primary-production definition, so farm-gate sales can still require notification or registration. Growing tomatoes on your property can be primary production; selling those tomatoes directly to the public from your gate can be a different activity.

What probably does not apply to a simple farm stand

The food laws cover businesses ranging from a table of home-grown produce to restaurants handling high-risk ready-to-eat food. That means some of the more demanding requirements you will encounter when researching the rules do not apply to every small seller.

Food Safety Supervisor

Applies where potentially hazardous food is processed into ready-to-eat food and served. Process includes chopping, cooking, drying, fermenting, heating, thawing, washing.

Required only where food is ready-to-eat and potentially hazardous and not in the supplier's original packaging.

If you only sell low-risk packaged foods such as jams, chutneys, biscuits or chocolates, Food Safety Supervisor and Standard 3.2.2A tools that target unpackaged potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food typically do not apply, confirm with your council. Routine inspection is also framed differently for those products.

Where the line changes

Whole raw fruit and vegetables are generally not treated as ready-to-eat food under the Food Standards Code because the consumer is expected to wash, peel or otherwise prepare them. Cut fruit, prepared salads, sandwiches, cooked meats and other unpackaged foods requiring temperature control can change your obligations significantly.

Basic food-handler obligations still apply

Even where Standard 3.2.2A does not apply, food businesses must ensure people undertaking food-handling activities have appropriate skills and knowledge for the work they perform. New South Wales guidance may point to DoFoodSafely as a training resource.

How to notify your food business

1. Contact Local council (direct-to-consumer) before setting up

   Tell them what you intend to make, where it will be prepared, how it will be stored, and where and how you intend to sell it. Home-based businesses can still be subject to inspection, so establish expectations before you commit to the setup.

2. Complete the Notification via council permit/approval application when selling direct to the final customer; NSW Food Authority pathway when not direct (wholesale to a business to on-sell)

   Your council or regulator can provide the current form. Fee: No fee published on the home-based mixed businesses page..

3. Respect the timing rule

   Before operating. Do not wait until after your first market or first weekend of sales.

4. Notify or register each premises

   If the business operates from multiple food premises, separate information is required for each site.

What happens if you do not comply?

Maximum penalties are not published in the Tier 1 material used for this page. Confirm with Local council (direct-to-consumer).

Labelling food you sell from home

Food labelling is primarily governed nationally through the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code rather than by a separate state labelling system. The exact information you need depends on whether the food is packaged, unpackaged, or made and packaged at the point of sale.

For packaged retail food that is required to carry a label, the Code can require information including:

• name of food
• lot identification
• supplier name and street address in Australia or New Zealand
• ingredients
• best-before or use-by
• directions for use and storage
• nutrition information panel
• country of origin
• warning and advisory statements
• allergen declaration

Nutrition information panels are not universal

Most packaged food requires a Nutrition Information Panel, but FSANZ publishes exemptions. Examples can include some food sold unpackaged and food made and packaged at the point of sale. Making a nutrition or health claim can also trigger requirements that would otherwise not apply.

Allergen declarations matter

Allergen declaration required as a label element.

Country of origin is a separate Australian requirement

Country-of-origin food labelling sits under the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016 as part of Australian Consumer Law, not under the Food Standards Code. Depending on the food and how it is sold, country-of-origin requirements may still apply.

What address goes on a home-food label?

Where the Code requires supplier identification, it requires the supplier's name and address in Australia or New Zealand. Whether a non-residential address or PO box satisfies the requirement is not published as a general rule. Confirm before printing a large run of labels.

Where you can sell

New South Wales food law can clearly capture direct sales to the public, including direct sales of food that would otherwise sit with primary production. Selling from your own property is not automatically exempt just because you grew or produced the food yourself.

Direct to final customer → local council. Not direct (wholesale to a cafe to on-sell) → NSW Food Authority. Food Act s 7(2)(b): sale or service of food directly to the public is excluded from primary food production.

A farmers market may have its own application and insurance conditions. Interstate or out-of-state sales can introduce requirements beyond New South Wales's local rules. Confirm each channel before you rely on it.

Unattended stalls and honesty boxes

There is no special published “honesty box exemption” in the Tier 1 material used for this page. An unattended stand selling food is still a method of selling food. Making the stand unattended does not change the product or remove food-safety obligations.

If payment is requested through an honesty box, QR code or electronic checkout, you are still conducting a sale where the food-law definition of sale is met.

Planning approval is separate

Food-business notification or registration and permission to operate a roadside or front-gate stall are different issues. Your council's planning rules may regulate whether and how you can operate a business or roadside stall from your property. Food notification does not automatically give you planning approval, and planning approval does not replace your food-business obligations.

GST, ABNs and getting paid

Food-business notification or registration does not register you for tax.

The Australian Taxation Office says a business generally reaches the GST registration threshold when its current or projected GST turnover is A$75,000 or more. For non-profit bodies, a higher threshold can apply. GST turnover is based on turnover, not profit. Whether GST actually applies to an individual sale is a separate question: many basic foods are GST-free, while other prepared foods and beverages can be taxable.

Is your stand a business or a hobby?

There is no single dollar figure that turns a hobby into a business. Australian Government guidance looks at profit intention, repetition, scale, whether you operate in a planned and businesslike way, and whether you keep business records. An ABN is not compulsory for every business, although having one can matter for GST registration and dealing with other businesses.

Do not confuse the tax test with the Food Act. An activity can attract food-safety obligations even where it is small, occasional or community-based.

Taking payments at an unattended stand

Once the compliance side is sorted, an unattended farm stand still has a practical problem: taking payment without requiring somebody to stand beside it all day. Cash and bank transfers can work, but they make it harder to tie a payment to an order, manage stock or offer customers pre-orders.

If you want customers to scan a QR code, select what they are buying, pay and update your stall inventory without someone being there, see how Vendl handles farm-stand checkout and pre-orders.

The New South Welsh catch

The unusual part of New South Wales is not the notification form itself. It is who you notify, and what happens when a market asks for proof your council cannot supply from the state regulator. If you sell direct to the person who eats the food, your local council is the enforcement path. If you sell to a cafe, retailer or other business to on-sell, the NSW Food Authority handles notification instead. That sales-channel split is load-bearing: the wrong regulator means the wrong form. Markets and event organisers sometimes ask for inspection evidence before they will let you trade. Councils may impose local conditions, but the NSW Food Authority publishes that it will not inspect on request solely to satisfy those market access requirements. That creates a practical catch-22 for home sellers who need a stall spot and a compliant premises at the same time. The Food Act also draws a line around primary production. Growing food can sit outside the food-business definition, but direct sale or service to the public is carved out of that protection. A farm-gate table can therefore sit inside the Act even when the growing activity did not. For low-risk packaged products such as jams, chutneys, biscuits and chocolates, Food Safety Supervisor and Standard 3.2.2A obligations that target unpackaged potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food typically do not apply. Confirm with your council, but the product profile matters as much as the venue.

Common mistake: Assuming NSW Food Authority will inspect on request to satisfy market access conditions some councils impose, it will not.

Nearby jurisdictions

Food-business rules change when you cross a state or territory border. If you are comparing requirements or selling across borders, see the equivalent guides for Victoria, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia.