Selling food from home in South Australia

In South Australia, you must notify the relevant enforcement agency before you start operating a home-based food business. For most people, that means notifying your local council. There is no fee for the Food Business Notification itself, but failing to notify carries a maximum penalty of A$25,000 for an individual.

At a glance

Who regulates you

For most home food businesses in South Australia, your local council is the enforcement agency.

Before you start operating, you provide the information required under the food safety standards through a Food Business Notification. If you operate from more than one food premises, each site requires its own notification.

SA Health's Food Safety and Regulation Branch provides statewide guidance, while councils carry out much of the local enforcement, including inspections of home-based food businesses.

This is different from states where the regulator changes according to the type of business or who you sell to. In South Australia, geography is usually what determines which council handles your notification.

Home-based food businesses can operate from domestic premises, but being home-based does not exempt you from the Food Standards Code. Your council can assess whether the premises and the way you intend to prepare food are suitable for the activity.

What counts as a food business

The definition is broader than a café, bakery or commercial kitchen.

Under the Food Act 2001 (SA), a food business is a business, enterprise or activity, other than primary food production, that handles food intended for sale or sells food.

It applies whether the activity is commercial, charitable or community-based, and whether you sell food regularly or on only one occasion.

That means a home baker selling cakes, a roadside food stall, a community group selling food at an event and a small farm-gate seller may all fall within the food-business rules.

One-off sales still count

The Act expressly says a food business can involve the handling or sale of food on one occasion only.

Running a food stall once rather than every weekend does not, by itself, take the activity outside the food-business definition.

Charitable and community sales still count

A business does not have to operate for profit to fall within the Act.

Charitable and community organisations that sell food can still be food businesses.

There is an important distinction between selling food and simply giving it away. SA Health guidance for charities and community groups says that requesting a donation in exchange for food can constitute selling food. By contrast, SA Health guidance on Standard 3.2.2A notes that food genuinely provided free of charge can fall outside the food-business definition.

So an honesty system based on a requested payment or donation should not be treated as a way around the food-business rules.

Growing the food yourself does not necessarily exempt the sale

Primary food production is generally excluded from the definition of a food business. That includes activities such as growing, raising, cultivating, picking, harvesting and collecting food.

But the Food Act specifically excludes direct sale or service of food to the public from that primary-production definition.

That distinction matters for small growers.

Growing tomatoes on your property is primary production. Selling those tomatoes directly to the public from your gate is a different activity and can bring the sale within the Food Act.

For farm stands, that is one of the most important distinctions in the South Australian rules.

Eggs have additional rules

If you sell eggs, council food-business notification is only part of the picture.

Egg production is separately regulated by Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA) under the Primary Produce (Food Safety Schemes) (Egg) Regulations 2012 and Standard 4.2.5 of the Food Standards Code.

All egg producers have food-safety obligations, including requirements relating to cracked and dirty eggs, traceability and egg identification.

PIRSA says accreditation is required if you have more than 50 laying birds.

Accreditation is also required regardless of flock size if you produce and sell eggs:

• to another food business, such as a supermarket, café, hotel or bakery
• to another egg producer
• at a market such as a farmers market
• by wholesale

PIRSA currently publishes an accreditation application fee of A$606, plus an annual fee based on flock size. Those are PIRSA accreditation fees, not the council Food Business Notification fee.

If eggs are one of the main products at your farm stand, check your PIRSA obligations separately rather than assuming council notification covers everything.

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 food-safety requirements you will encounter when researching the rules do not apply to every small seller.

Food Safety Supervisor

Standard 3.2.2A applies to particular food service, catering and retail businesses handling unpackaged, potentially hazardous food that is ready to eat.

Category 1 businesses generally process unpackaged potentially hazardous food into food that remains potentially hazardous and ready to eat. Examples include restaurants, caterers and some bakeries.

Category 2 businesses sell unpackaged, potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food without making it. Examples can include delis and supermarkets.

Businesses captured by those categories need a qualified Food Safety Supervisor (FSS), along with the other management tools applicable to their category.

A stand selling whole fruit and vegetables, sealed jars of jam, honey or other low-risk products will often sit outside those Category 1 and Category 2 triggers, but that depends on the food and how you handle it.

The question is not simply whether you "sell food". It is whether the food and handling activities bring the business into Category 1 or Category 2 under Standard 3.2.2A.

Where the line changes

Whole raw fruit and vegetables are generally not treated as ready-to-eat food under the Code because the consumer is expected to wash, peel or otherwise prepare them.

Cut fruit and prepared salads are different.

Likewise, once you begin preparing and selling foods such as sandwiches, cooked meats, dairy-based products or other unpackaged foods requiring temperature control for safety, your obligations can change significantly.

The useful dividing line is therefore not "farm stand versus restaurant". It is what food you handle, whether it is potentially hazardous, whether it is ready to eat and what you do to it before sale.

Basic food-handler obligations still apply

Even where Standard 3.2.2A does not apply, the general food-safety standards still matter.

Food businesses must ensure people undertaking food-handling activities have appropriate skills and knowledge for the work they perform.

SA Health supports the free DoFoodSafely online learning program as a food-safety training resource.

How to notify your food business

1. Contact your council before setting up

If you are making food at home, contact your council's environmental health team before investing in kitchen changes, packaging or equipment.

Tell them:

• what you intend to make
• where it will be prepared
• how it will be stored
• where and how you intend to sell it

Home-based businesses are subject to food-safety requirements and inspection, so it is useful to establish what your council expects before you commit to the setup.

2. Complete the Food Business Notification

Your council can provide the Food Business Notification form.

The notification itself has no application fee.

3. Notify before you start operating

Section 86 of the Food Act 2001 (SA) requires the proprietor to provide the required notification before the food business is conducted.

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

4. Notify each premises

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

5. Keep your information current

If ownership or relevant business details change, update the enforcement agency as required rather than treating the initial notification as a permanent approval of any future business model.

What happens if you do not notify?

South Australia publishes specific penalties for failing to comply with the notification requirement.

Under section 86 of the Food Act 2001 (SA), the maximum penalties are:

• A$25,000 for an individual
• A$120,000 for a body corporate

The published expiation fees are:

• A$300 for an individual
• A$1,500 for a body corporate

That makes notification one of the easier compliance issues to remove: the notification fee is nil, while the statutory penalty for ignoring it is significant.

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 South Australian labelling system.

The exact information you need to provide depends on whether the food is packaged, unpackaged, made and packaged at the point of sale, and whether any specific exemptions apply.

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

• the name or description of the food
• lot identification
• the supplier's name and address in Australia or New Zealand
• a statement of ingredients
• applicable date marking
• directions for use or storage where required for health or safety
• allergen declarations and required warning or advisory statements
• a nutrition information panel where required

Do not assume every item on that list applies identically to every food. The Code contains exemptions and different information requirements for some foods that are sold unpackaged or made and packaged at the point of sale.

Nutrition information panels are not universal

Most packaged food requires a Nutrition Information Panel (NIP), but FSANZ publishes exemptions.

Examples include some food sold unpackaged and food made and packaged at the point of sale.

Making a nutrition or health claim can also trigger nutrition-information requirements that would otherwise not apply.

Allergen declarations matter

Australia's plain-English allergen labelling requirements now apply to foods covered by the relevant labelling provisions.

If your product contains declarable allergens, check the current Standard 1.2.3 requirements when you design the label rather than relying on an old ingredient-label template.

Country of origin is a separate Australian requirement

Country-of-origin food labelling is no longer regulated through the Food Standards Code.

In Australia it sits under the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016, which forms part of Australian Consumer Law.

Depending on the food and the way it is sold, country-of-origin requirements may still apply. It is simply a separate legal framework from the Food Standards Code.

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.

For a home business, privacy can therefore become a practical issue if your home is the relevant business address.

The published FSANZ material establishes the supplier-address requirement, but it does not provide a general rule saying every home seller must print their residential address or that a PO box will always satisfy the requirement.

If you want to use an address other than your home address, establish that it satisfies the Code before printing a large run of labels.

Where you can sell

South Australian food law clearly captures direct sales to the public, including direct sales of food that would otherwise be part of primary production.

That means selling from your own property is not automatically exempt just because you grew or produced the food yourself.

The Food Act also treats a stall as a type of food premises, so operating from a temporary setup does not itself avoid the food-safety framework.

Other questions can depend on the circumstances of the sale.

A farmers market may have its own application and insurance conditions. Selling eggs at a market can trigger PIRSA accreditation regardless of flock size. Interstate shipping can introduce requirements beyond South Australia's local food-business rules.

Treat the sales channel as part of the compliance question rather than assuming one notification answers every issue.

Unattended stalls and honesty boxes

There is no special South Australian "honesty box exemption" from the Food Act.

An unattended stand selling food is still a method of selling food. Making the stand unattended does not change the nature of the product or remove the underlying food-safety obligations.

If payment is requested through an honesty box, QR code or electronic checkout, you are still conducting a sale.

What changes are the practical risks.

Potentially hazardous food still has to be kept under appropriate temperature control. Products need protection from contamination. Labelling and allergen information still need to be provided where required.

The fact that nobody is physically standing beside the products does not remove those obligations.

Planning approval is separate

Food-business notification 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.

If you intend to install a permanent roadside setup, ask your council about both.

GST, ABNs and getting paid

Food-business notification 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, the threshold is A$150,000.

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 says relevant factors include:

• whether you intend to make a profit
• repetition of the activity
• the scale of what you are doing
• whether you operate in a planned and businesslike way
• whether you keep business records and accounts

An Australian Business Number (ABN) is not compulsory for every business, although having one can be important 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 South Australian catch

The unusual part of South Australia's system is not the notification form. It is where the definition of primary food production ends.

Growing, raising, cultivating and harvesting food can be primary production. But the Food Act expressly removes direct sale or service to the public from that definition.

So the same box of produce can sit on opposite sides of the line depending on what happens next.

Send it into the supply chain as part of primary production and the activity may remain within that primary-production framework. Put it on a table at the front gate and sell it directly to the public, and the direct-sale activity is no longer protected by that primary-production definition.

The Act is also deliberately broad about scale. Commercial, charitable and community activities are covered, and a food business can exist for a single occasion.

That combination explains why very small sellers can overlook the requirement. The operation does not look like a restaurant, shop or conventional "food business", but the legislation is not written around what the business looks like.

And the easiest part to fix is the notification itself. South Australia's Food Business Notification has no application fee. Section 86 nevertheless carries a maximum individual penalty of A$25,000 for operating without the required notification.

For a small home or farm-gate food seller, finding out whether you need to notify before you open is a much better trade than finding out afterwards.

Nearby jurisdictions

Food-business rules change when you cross a state or territory border. Guides for neighbouring states will be linked here when those pages are published.

For another published Australian jurisdiction reference, see selling food from home in the Australian Capital Territory.

Looking for the right council? See the South Australian council directory.

Sources and verification

This page was checked against primary government and regulator material on 24 August 2026.

Primary sources used:

• Food Act 2001 (SA) — definitions of food business and primary food production; section 86 notification and penalties
• SA Health — Starting a food business — Food Business Notification and statewide food-safety guidance
• SA Health — Standard 3.2.2A Food Safety Management Tools guidance
• Food Standards Australia New Zealand — Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, Safe Food Australia, labelling and allergen guidance
• Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016 — country-of-origin labelling under Australian Consumer Law
• PIRSA — South Australian egg food-safety and accreditation requirements
• Australian Taxation Office — GST registration threshold guidance
• business.gov.au — business-versus-hobby and ABN guidance

Rules change. Confirm the current requirements with your council, SA Health or the relevant regulator before you start. This page is a practical reference, not legal advice, and does not replace the Food Act 2001 (SA), the Food Standards Code or directions from an authorised regulator.

Last verified: 24 August 2026 Next review: 24 February 2027