Chivi Rural District Council (Food Hygiene) By-laws, 2026

Chivi Rural District Council has adopted food hygiene by-laws covering anyone who prepares, manufactures, stores, conveys, sells or exposes food for sale in the district.

Food may only be handled on premises approved by the council, and never where the condition, situation or construction of the premises exposes it to contamination. Occupiers must keep walls, floors, ceilings and woodwork clean and in repair, keep containers and equipment clean, protect food from vermin, separate food unfit for consumption, keep open food covered while displayed or delivered, and never place food less than 500mm above the ground on a pavement, forecourt or yard. Sanitary conveniences must have water, be kept working, and be sited so no odour reaches a food room; hand basins need water, soap and hand-drying; every toilet needs a hand-washing notice and a sanitary bin. Refuse goes in lidded impervious bins, never left in the food room. Staff handling food must be clean and in clean light-coloured over-clothing, headgear and footwear, and a first-aid kit must be kept accessible.

Storage and transport rules follow: no dirty or unsuitable wrapping, no printed material against food except for uncooked vegetables and unplucked poultry, no cracked or chipped crockery or bottles, and delivery vehicles must protect food from contamination, be clean, and carry the owner's name and address. Food may not travel with live animals or poultry, food rooms may not be used or connected to sleeping places or toilets, animal feed must be in sealed containers, and live animals or birds need the council's consent to be in a food room. Selling food the council or an environmental health officer considers unwholesome, adulterated or diseased is prohibited.

Anyone employed to handle open food must be registered with the council on payment of a fee, must hold a medical certificate from a medical practitioner before starting and every 12 months thereafter — or after any enteric illness — must keep cuts covered with a waterproof dressing, and may not spit or use tobacco or snuff on the premises. A food handler who learns they have or carry typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, tuberculosis, another salmonella infection, dysentery, infectious hepatitis or a staphylococcal infection likely to cause food poisoning must tell their employer immediately, who must tell the environmental health officer at once; the council must then contain the disease.

Authorised officials may enter and inspect any premises at any reasonable time and whenever business is in progress, and obstruction is an offence.

One caveat worth knowing before budgeting for this: in the published text the food handling registration fee is printed as US$0.00 and every penalty in the Second Schedule is printed as 0,00. Whether those are genuine nil amounts or a printing error, the figures should be confirmed with the council.