Council backslides on baking inspections

Posted Jun 22, 2016 in News

Uniting Church congregations across South Australia are well-known providers of delicious baked goods. From cakes to biscuits, scones to slices, churches have often sold sweet treats as a way to raise money for charities and important church projects. This activity has rarely been a site of controversy. But the One Tree Hill Uniting Church Fellowship, one of many loyal providers of sweets, have a newfound appreciation for this kind of fundraising after it was recently threatened by the Playford Council.

The Fellowship sells baked goods at the monthly One Tree Hill Market to raise funds for a variety of worthy causes – and it has been raising money this way for many years.

However, several weeks ago, the Playford Council approached the Fellowship's group of 12 bakers and advised them that they would each be subject to an annual kitchen inspection. The council’s inspector would need to visit each baker’s home to view the kitchen’s hygiene standards – looking at sinks, food storage, utensils and more.

This controversial council decision was covered in the Friday 3 June edition of the Adelaide Advertiser (cover, page 8). In this article, the council said “it was only enforcing state laws… to comply with the South Australian Food Act 2001”. The Act states that all premises where food is prepared for sale must be inspected to ensure safe food handling.

The Playford Council hoped to work with the Fellowship group to ensure they could continue to sell homemade goods, but many of the bakers felt the options suggested were not tenable.

Speaking to New Times on Tuesday 21 June, Fellowship Secretary Win Harrip expressed the discomfort many of the bakers felt at what she called an “intrusion of privacy”

Fortunately, the Playford Council has since reviewed their decision and decided not to subject the bakers’ home kitchens to inspections. They will now only conduct an inspection if a formal complaint is made about food handling, food poisoning or foreign objects in food.

“We’re relieved this has been resolved and that common sense has prevailed,” Win told New Times.

“We are pleased we can go ahead and bake cakes for charity, including at the One Tree Hill Market on Saturday 2 July. We’ll be raising money for Frontier Services, for Uniting Church community needs in the surrounding suburbs, and for Uniting Church overseas mission.”

Although Win says they don’t raise “megabucks” at events like these, the Fellowship group has been supporting charity initiatives with their baking for many years – and hope to continue doing so!

To support the bakers of the One Tree Hill Uniting Church Fellowship visit them and buy a cake at the monthly One Tree Hill Market, where they have a regular stall.

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