VIC Food Delivery Service as a Sole Trader - Commercial Law Regulations?

[Daniel231]

Hi everyone.

I am planning to start an online food delivery service (like UberEats) as a sole trader to deliver homemade food (sourcing from independent home-based kitchens - not us) to customers.

Basically a website where:

Customers: Select their food from the menu, order it to get it delivered to their address.

We:
1) Manage the website and orders including customer support
2) delivery management

Independent Home based kitchens: Posting/updating their menu items on our website, receiving orders once customer confirms, preparing food and packing it for us to deliver.

Some of my friends say that I'd need to follow food safety regulations in this regard. On the other side, I found too much information on Health VIC website with quite less information related to my business structure. I ended up being confused to finally post here to know your valuable opinion.

Surely those independent home-based kitchens need to follow food safety regulations, however, I wonder what regulations apply to my business. We would have no control over food except to pick it up from the kitchen and deliver to the customer. Therefore, how do we ensure that we are not breaching any Commercial Law regulations?

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year!

 

[Rob Legat - SBPL]

I'd suggest checking your local council regulations about food businesses, they're the ones who tend to police it. I think you'll find that a home based kitchen will not cut it.