Shurugwi Town Council (Food Hygiene) By-laws, 2025

These by-laws regulate food hygiene in the Shurugwi Town Council area: where food may be sold or stored, cleanliness of premises, storage, registration and cleanliness of food handlers, notification of infectious disease and powers of entry and inspection.

Food handlers must be registered with the council at US$20, keep themselves and their clothing clean, wear approved head and neck coverings where hair may touch food, and take all necessary steps to protect food from contamination.

Infectious disease reporting is strict. A food handler who becomes aware of suffering from or carrying typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, tuberculosis or another salmonella infection, dysentery, infectious hepatitis or a staphylococcal infection likely to cause food poisoning must tell their employer, who must immediately notify the environmental health officer; a self-employed handler tells the council directly. The council then takes containment measures.

Authorised officials may enter and inspect premises, equipment and processes at all reasonable times and whenever business is in progress, and obstruction is prohibited.

Penalties are US$500 for selling contaminated food, US$250 each for selling food past its expiry date, failing to notify the council of an infectious disease, and obstructing an inspecting official, US$100 each for selling unwholesome food and for preparing, storing or selling food on premises prone to contamination or unapproved premises, and US$50 for failing to provide clean, working sanitary conveniences with adequate water.