Imported Food Inspector

You are what you eat

You probably know that many of the foods available in Australian supermarkets are imported from overseas. What you may not know, is that whenever this food arrives in Australia, Quarantine officers make sure it doesn’t carry any pests or diseases that could affect our animal and plant life. In fact, there’s a special group of Quarantine officers whose job it is to check that commercially imported foods are safe to eat, according to Australian food standards.

Monica Conellan has been working with Australian Quarantine’s Imported Foods program for about two years. To do her job, she visits premises where imported foods are stored, and checks them before they end up on supermarket shelves.

First up on the imported food inspection list is checking how the food is labelled – Australia has strict rules about labelling food products. For example, the labels must be in English; list all ingredients, have warnings about foods with allergens (like peanuts), and have batch numbers clearly marked so that the product can be traced if there is a problem later on.

“It’s also important to check that packaging is intact and that there are no leaks – otherwise the food could be contaminated,” adds Monica.

Secondly, part of Monica’s job is to take samples of food for testing. For fresh seafood, for example, she checks to make sure it doesn’t contain high levels of chemicals such as mercury; and for cooked seafood, samples are used to test for micro-organisms that could cause food poisoning.

“The most important aspect of doing food testing is to make sure the testing instruments – and the whole testing environment – are clean and sterile,” says Monica. “The testing sometimes reveals natural contaminants (such as mercury in seafood) or contamination from food that has been prepared in unhygienic areas.”

And what happens to food that doesn’t pass the test? Importers can choose to surrender the product for destruction; send it back to its country of origin; have it turned into pet food (if it’s possible); or, if the problem can be fixed, they can make adjustments so that their food complies with Australian food standards.

Thanks to her job, Monica is much more aware of exactly what is in the food at the supermarket – and what she will take home!

Cool Careers in Quarantine | Quarantine Matters! to schools index