Sausage Sizzles in Victoria
Registration information for community groups
Many community groups in Victoria hold sausage sizzles to raise funds for their group or to donate to charity. To sell food to the public in Victoria, your sausage sizzle stall or trailer will require a Food Act registration from a municipal council, and a Statement of Trade needs to be lodged with the council in whose area you will be trading. This fact sheet will provide you with information on how to register, which council to register with, and how to lodge a Statement of Trade.
The definition of sausage sizzle in Victoria is: sausages that are cooked and served immediately, with or without onions cooked at the same time, and bread and sauce.
This also covers things like canned soft drinks and wrapped chocolates.
If you are planning to do other foods, such as bacon and eggs, hamburgers, salads or vegetarian patties this guide will not apply to you.
A printer friendly fact sheet.
If you are having trouble with the application process, a step-by-step guide, specifically for sausage sizzles, is available here.
If you are selling food to the public you are required to register your temporary food premises (your sausage sizzle stall) with your principal council before trading.
You do not need to register if you are only asking for a voluntary donation.
It is also important that you make sure your community group is not already registered.
If you are already registered you will only need to log in to your community group's account and lodge a Statement of Trade with the date and time you will be trading. If you are unsure if your group is registered, or can't remember your log in details please call your local council.
You need to register with your principal council, which is the council in whose area your community group comes from (not the one where you will first be trading).
For example, your community group may be based in Bayside, but you will be having your first sausage sizzle at a location somewhere in St. Kilda which comes under Port Philip’s jurisdiction.
In this instance, you will register with Bayside City Council and lodge a Statement of Trade to Port Philip City Council.
If you’re unsure of your council, you can find them on the find your local council website.
Now that you are registered, all you need to do before you can trade is lodge your first Statement of Trade. To do this you just need to log in to your Streatrader account and click the button that says “Lodge Statement of Trade”.
If you have trouble with this, instructions can be found in the How To Use section above.
The form will ask you when and where you are trading, and once you have completed the form, it will be sent to the appropriate council online - free of charge - to notify them you will be trading in the area.
You are required to fill a SOT out each time you trade in Victoria – so if you want to do another sausage sizzle another time in the future, you can just log on to the same account and lodge a SOT with the appropriate date and location for your group’s upcoming event. Your Streatrader registration will last as long as your community group needs it. You just need to lodge a SOT for each event.
In Victoria food premises are grouped into classes, each of which has a certain amount of food safety risk associated with it. The highest class a temporary food premises, such as an expo stall, can reach is a Class 2, the next is a Class 3 and the lowest is a Class 4.
A sausage sizzle is considered a Class 4, which allows you to cook sausages and onions, and provide bread and sauce.
There are no legal requirements, such as having a food handling certificate, for Class 4’s to become registered.
Councils are also unable to charge you a fee for a Class 4 registration.
For more information on things such as registration, registration requirements, fees and time frames please contact your principal council and ask to speak to an environmental health officer. You can find your council’s contact details here, or by searching ‘find your local council’ online.
The Streatrader website contains help guides and FAQs that can assist you with your application. Try looking under the How To Use or FAQ headings above to find more information.
Your council’s environmental health officer will also be able to assist you with more information and your online application.
Below are some publications and posters that may be useful for your event:
Food Safety tips - Sausage Sizzles
Guide to food safety regulation in Victoria for Community Groups - Sausage Sizzles
Victorian Department of Health, posters and publications - Keeping food safe
Free online food handler learning program - Dofoodsafely
Your local council may have some more resources that could be useful. Council contact details can be found here.