Submission: Safe Food Victoria

Our submission on the proposed establishment of Safe Food Victoria is unequivocal: you don’t dismantle a system that works.

Victoria’s dairy industry is the backbone of Australia’s milk supply and dairy exports. It is fast-moving, high-value, and unforgiving of failure. That’s why food safety regulation in this sector must be precise, responsive, and deeply informed by dairy expertise.

Dairy Food Safety Victoria delivers exactly that.

It is trusted.
It is risk-based.
It is built for dairy.

For decades, DFSV has provided end-to-end assurance from farm to factory to market, underpinning export confidence and protecting billions of dollars in trade. There is no evidence of market failure. No demonstrated performance gap. And no credible case that folding DFSV into a multi-sector regulator would improve safety or efficiency.

We support reform where it makes sense. We support better coordination between regulators. But efficiency can never come at the cost of effectiveness. Generalist systems dilute expertise. Slower responses increase risk. And decisions made without industry at the table rarely hold up when it matters most.

We believe the future lies in strengthening what already works – retaining DFSV as an independent, dairy-specific regulator, while investing in smarter coordination, shared systems, and capability across the broader food safety framework.

This Australian Dairy Industry Council (ADIC) submission called on the Victorian Government to protect trust, protect markets and protect our world-class system that delivers every day.

We call on government to improve coordination – without breaking the backbone of dairy food safety in Victoria.

More: Read the ADIC submission.