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commercialpestcontrolmelbourne.com.au
PremisesA food business in Melbourne
ReferenceStandard 3.2.2, clause 24
Sources checked8 October 2026
Pests and the food business

Commercial pest control in Melbourne, read as a kitchen audit

Every food business in Australia must take all practicable measures to keep pests out of its premises and to get rid of any that get in. This guide works through that duty the way an audit does, one item at a time: the rule itself, the plan, the operator you hire, fumigation and the chemicals.

A guide to pest control for food businesses in Melbourne, published by Dotto from the official sources listed at the foot of each page: the Food Standards Code, Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Victoria’s Department of Health and the national fumigation scheme.

An inspection stamp reading Standard 3.2.2, clause 24, animals and pests STANDARD 3.2.2 · CLAUSE 24 · ANIMALS AND PESTS · 24 CLAUSE
SHEET

The audit sheet: five checks

Each line of the sheet is one guide, and each guide answers one question a business owner asks. The rules come from the national Food Standards Code and from Victoria, and every page says which is which.

Five guides, in the order an audit would take them.
No.CheckWhere the rule lives
01The food standards pest rule, line by line

What clause 24 says, phrase by phrase, and the clauses on cleanliness and repair beside it.

Food Standards Code, Standard 3.2.2
02A pest management plan for a food business

The four parts FSANZ suggests a plan covers, the site map, and the record kept of each visit.

FSANZ guidance on controlling pests
03Hiring a licensed operator in Victoria

The licence register, matching an authorisation to the job, and what to ask before, during and after a treatment.

Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic)
04Methyl bromide and fumigation

Where a business may meet fumigation, on imported goods, the risk area around it, and the national accreditation scheme.

Victoria’s fact sheet and the national scheme
05Pesticide hazards at work

The four pesticide classes Victoria describes, what raises the hazard, and what an operator should tell you.

Victoria’s Department of Health
RULE

The rule in two lines

The pest duty sits in clause 24 of Standard 3.2.2, Food Safety Practices and General Requirements, which applies to all food businesses and food handlers in Australia. Its two working lines say that a food business must:

“(b) take all practicable measures to prevent pests entering the food premises; and (c) take all practicable measures to eradicate and prevent the harbourage of pests on the food premises and those parts of vehicles that are used to transport food.”

Standard 3.2.2, clause 24(1), on the Federal Register of Legislation

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) puts the same duty in plain words: a business must do everything it reasonably can to prevent pest problems. The first check reads the whole clause, including its rules on animals.

MAP

The site map

FSANZ suggests a pest management plan that records where pest control devices and pesticides are, kept as a site map, with each one placed where pesticides or killed pests cannot touch food or food-contact surfaces, and so not above a food preparation area.

An illustrative site map of a small food premises A floor plan: a dining room on the left with the front door, a kitchen on the right with a cook line and sink along the top wall, a prep bench in the middle, a dry store in the bottom right corner and the bins outside the back door. Lettered markers show monitors at both doors, bait stations by the back door, in the dry store and in a kitchen corner, and an insect killer on the far wall. A red dashed outline around the prep bench marks the area where no device goes above. DINING COOK LINE SINK PREP BENCH DRY STORE BINS M M B B B U X
An illustration of the kind of map FSANZ describes, drawn for this guide. It is not a real premises and not a layout to copy.
  1. MMonitors and traps. FSANZ’s tips include pest repellent and trap devices, for example at entrances and exits.
  2. BBait stations. Victoria’s food safety site for food handlers says to label bait stations with the date they were set.
  3. UInsect killers. The same site says insect zappers, spray dispensers and ultraviolet insect killers should not sit above food preparation or packaging areas.
  4. XNothing above the bench. The red outline marks the preparation area, where FSANZ says devices and pesticides should not be placed above.

The plan guide sets out the map alongside the other three parts of a plan.

STAMPS

Who checks what in Victoria

Three different bodies look at three different parts of the same job.

  • The food premises

    Your local council

    For Victoria, FSANZ’s list of food regulators directs questions about registering a food business, food safety programs and complaints about food premises to the local council’s environmental health officer.

  • The pest controller

    Department of Health

    The department licenses the people who apply pesticides in a pest control business, and its register lists each current licence holder’s name and licence expiry date.

  • The chemicals at work

    WorkSafe Victoria

    Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and its 2017 regulations, administered by WorkSafe Victoria, require employers to protect employees who use hazardous substances. Safe Work Australia notes that Victoria is the only jurisdiction that has not implemented the national model work health and safety laws.

The last two checks follow those duties into the parts of a job a business owner sees least of: the gas inside a fumigated container, and the chemistry of what is sprayed in a kitchen. Start with the four pesticide classes.