Cookaborough is committed to maintaining a platform of safe, trusted and reputable food businesses.

All food businesses operating on Cookaborough must maintain current compliance documentation demonstrating that they are appropriately registered, insured and operating in accordance with applicable food safety requirements.

Food businesses providing meals to Support at Home (SaH) or NDIS customers have additional requirements associated with participating in these government-funded programs.

You can view your compliance status, expiry dates and outstanding requirements, and upload or update documents via: Settings > Business > Compliance

What are the compliance requirements?

There are two types of compliance on Cookaborough.

1. General Compliance

General Compliance applies to all food businesses and requires:

• Food Business Registration
• Food Safety Supervisor Certificate
• Public Liability Insurance
• Workers Compensation Certificate of Currency
• Signed General Compliance Declaration

These requirements help ensure food businesses on Cookaborough are appropriately registered, insured and operating in accordance with applicable food safety requirements.

2. Government Compliance

Government Compliance applies to food businesses providing meals to SaH or NDIS customers. In addition to General Compliance, these food businesses must:

• Upload a current Certificate of Compliance issued by an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD).
• Sign a Government Program Compliance Declaration, confirming that the business understands and is meeting the relevant requirements for providing meals to SaH and NDIS customers.

These additional requirements help ensure food businesses understand and meet their obligations when participating in government-funded meal programs.

How does the compliance process work?

As part of onboarding you must upload the required documents and complete your declarations in the Compliance section of your account.

Our Compliance Manager will review each submission and mark it as either Verified or Rejected. If something is rejected, we’ll let you know via email why and what needs to be corrected.

Once all applicable requirements are verified, your food business will be confirmed as compliant.

Compliance is ongoing, so documents must be kept current and declarations reconfirmed annually.

What happens when a document is due to expire?

We’ll notify you well before a compliance document expires, with automated email reminders at:

• 60 days before expiry
• 30 days before expiry
• 14 days before expiry
• 7 days before expiry

We recommend arranging replacement documents as early as possible, particularly when you rely on a council, insurer, APD or another third party to issue them.

If a compliance requirement expires or becomes outstanding, you have a 14-day grace period to resolve it before any platform restrictions are applied. You can continue operating normally during this period.

If the requirement is still outstanding after 14 days, the relevant compliance restrictions will apply until it has been resolved and verified.

What happens if I become non-compliant?

The restrictions depend on whether your General Compliance or Government Compliance is affected.

General Compliance

If a General Compliance requirement remains outstanding after the 14-day grace period:

• You cannot publish menus or accept orders.
• Your business is removed from the Find a Cook directory.
• Customers will be unable to place orders with your business.

Government Compliance

If a Government Compliance requirement remains outstanding after the 14-day grace period:

• You can continue accepting standard customer orders.
• You will not appear in any Support at Home or NDIS searches on our platform.
• Support at Home and NDIS ordering will be disabled and these customers will be unable to place new orders with your business.

These restrictions will automatically be removed once the outstanding compliance requirements have been completed, submitted and verified.

Staying compliant

Keeping your compliance up to date protects your customers, your business and the integrity of the Cookaborough platform.

We’ll provide advance reminders and a 14-day grace period if something becomes outstanding, but it remains your responsibility to maintain the registrations, insurance, certificates and declarations required for your business to operate on Cookaborough.