One in 10 restaurants and food businesses have failed food safety inspections by NSW councils in the past six months, while well over half of all premises inspected were found to have breached at least one food safety regulation.
The first report by the NSW Food Authority, drawing together data from all 152 local councils, shows that, between July and December last year, only 9712 out of 23,326 businesses inspected were given a clean bill of health.
More than 700 fines were issued and 31 prosecutions recorded for the same period.
NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, said the data showed there was clearly a knowledge gap in food safety practices among the state's food businesses.
"This is not good enough - more work needs to be done by food premises to make sure they comply with critical food handling practices," Mr Macdonald said. "Food safety must be the No.1 priority of all food businesses.
"Consumers should not have to take a risk when dining out."
Hygiene and poor food handling practices were the most complained about issues, followed by food quality, including deterioration.
Unexpected and unwelcome guests also featured, with more than one out of every 10 complaints relating to foreign matter being found in food.
Mr MacDonald said the Government was working with the food industry to introduce a mandatory food handler training program, which was expected to be up and running by next year.
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