PrimeSafe was established on 1 July 2003 under the Seafood Safety Act 2003 and the Meat Industry Act 1993 with responsibility for ensuring safety of food produced from red meat, poultry and seafood, including the management of pet meat and pet food, the transport of these products.

The PrimeSafe requirements for licensing are based on certification of a food safety program which demonstrates an organisation's ability to control food safety hazards and ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption.  There are various standards recognised under this scheme, each based on CODEX Alimentarius Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles.

Scheme operation

Under the Meat Industry Act 1993 and the Seafood Safety Act 2003, all meat processing facilities and seafood businesses in Victoria require a licence issued by PrimeSafe in order to operate.

As a condition of licence, meat and seafood processing facilities are required to maintain adequate procedures within their quality assurance program to ensure compliance with standards relevant to their processing operations.

PrimeSafe uses Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) accredited conformity assessment bodies to monitor quality assurance systems at meat and seafood processing facilities. Conformity assessment bodies are engaged directly by the licensee and the cost of each audit is met by the licensee.

Scheme owner

PrimeSafe; http://www.primesafe.vic.gov.au/

More information

An application pack, application form and other relevant material is not available on this site. These documents are available through our SharePoint portal. If you are a body that we currently accredit, you can access this information through the Shared CAB Portal. If you are a new applicant, please complete an application enquiry form. Once this form is submitted, the Secretariat will contact you to advise the next steps.  For other stakeholders, please submit your inquiry through the online feedback form.