Requirements for egg supply in Australia
Selling or supplying eggs outside your property? Be aware of the regulations and requirements. Last updated July 2025.
Introduction
From a regulatory point of view, there’s actually no difference between giving your neighbour a dozen eggs, and selling 15 dozen eggs every week at a market stall.
The key term is “supply”. It’s not “sale”. It’s officially got nothing to do with money.
Why? Because eggs are an organic product and, if they’re not handled properly, they can - and have - caused salmonella outbreaks.
This article outlines each Australian state’s regulations on supplying eggs for human consumption.
Update: July 2025. I’ve noticed a number of states starting to explicitly remove supply of eggs to friends, neighbours, and workmates from their regulatory requirements around registration/accreditation and egg stamping. This is a welcome move.
However, suppliers should still ensure the eggs they supply are clean and uncracked, and supplied in clean containers, to reduce any salmonella risk.
Why would such supply be exempted? Because it’s easy to trace the egg source in this circumstance. The supply is directly to someone known. If a salmonella outbreak requires tracing, it would be relatively easy to do.
Note, too, that this does not necessarily exempt the supplier from the requirement to have a Property Identification Code (PIC).
This information is also in a downloadable PDF for printing, which I try to keep the same as this Substack article, but there may be differences here and there.
About Salmonella, E. coli, and Botulism
Ever had a bit of a squirgly stomach for a few hours and weren’t sure why? So minor you didn’t pay it any attention? It might have been E. coli (Escherichia coli bacteria), or Botulism (Clostridium botulinum bacteria), or Salmonella (Salmonella bacteria).
These bacteria, Salmonella in particular, are serious. It can cause anything from minor stomach upsets through to long-term issues and even death.
Eggs are one source of Salmonella bacteria. They’re not the only source of it, of course, and anything that could introduce Salmonella into the food chain is highly-regulated; but eggs are a common and highly-scrutinised source.
Overview
It can get annoyingly complicated.
My own personal take on all this is that if you don’t give someone a reason to complain, giving away a few dozen eggs to your neighbour or selling some eggs to your workmates isn’t even going to be noticed by any regulatory authorities.
Make sure your eggs are fresh, clean, and uncracked, and you should be good.
And if you plan to make money from your little enterprise, make yourself aware of the related regulations and comply with them.
Firstly, there’s the Federal Food Safety Standard, or the Code, managed by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
Implementation of the Code rests on each individual Australian State. Any registration or accreditation is with the state-based organisation.
This includes requirements for stamping, labelling, and Property Identification Code (PIC) registration.
While the Code doesn’t differentiate between selling or giving away eggs, the ATO and your local Council do. You may need to become aware of the difference between a business and a hobby for registration, land zoning, insurance, and taxation purposes.
If you’re deemed to be operating a business from your home (sale or supply of eggs), you may require registration as a home business with your local Council.
You may also need to check the zoning of your land.
It may also be necessary to ensure that your kitchen meets commercial kitchen standards for food preparation and supply.
If you’re receiving money from the sale of your eggs, that counts as “income” and the ATO tends to get interested in income :). You may need to determine whether you’re running a business or a hobby.
If you are running a business from your home, that may affect your house and contents insurance. This may include selling eggs at a farm gate. Farm insurance tends to cover those activities; house and contents insurance doesn’t.
The Australian Federal regulations
There's a federal (ie Australia-wide) Standard that came into being in May 2011. It's the "The Primary Production and Processing (PPP) Standard for Eggs and Egg Products (Standard 4.2.5)", and is part of a series of national food safety standards.
It's a very short legal document. In its entirety, it states:
1 Interpretation
(1) The definitions in Standard 4.2.5 apply to this Standard.
(2) In this Standard –
catering purposes includes food supplied to catering establishments, restaurants, canteens, schools, hospitals, and institutions where food is prepared or offered for immediate consumption.
retail sale means sale to the public.
2 Sale or supply of unacceptable eggs
Unacceptable eggs must not be sold or supplied for catering purposes or retail sale.Editorial note:
Under Standard 4.2.5, an ‘unacceptable egg’ is a cracked (including broken) egg or a dirty egg or unprocessed egg pulp. See Standard 4.2.5 for definitions of cracked eggs and dirty eggs.3 Traceability
Eggs for retail sale or for catering purposes must be individually marked with the producers’ or processors’ unique identification.
What does this mean?
In short:
Any eggs supplied for human consumption outside of the place they were produced must comply with the Standard.
Some States seem to be interpreting this to mean “retail sale” excludes eggs you give away to family or workmates.
Such exemptions are not a reason to supply cracked, dirty eggs, however.
Eggs supplied for consumption must be:
clean
uncracked
stamped with something that identifies you
supplied in clean new egg cartons (packaging and labelling of food is covered in separate Standards - I’ve just brought it in here for simplicity’s sake)
Links
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand: Primary Production and Processing (PPP) Standards (Chapter 4) - Eggs
The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code - Standard 4.2.5 – Primary Production and Processing Standard for Eggs and Egg Product - the Standard itself
The Explanatory Statement associated with the Standard. The ES is much more readable and provides excellent background.
The Explanatory Statement states that implementation of the Standard is the responsibility of the States and Territories. Which is extremely annoying and is the entire reason this document is so long.
The State regulations
For some insane reason, implementation of the Standard was given to the individual Australian states and territories. The Standard was meant to unify all the individual requirements across Australia - it honestly didn’t make that much of a change.
As a result, the rules for small-scale egg supply across Australia range from sensible and easy to follow (NSW, SA) through to a clear attempt to push small-scale suppliers out of the egg supply market entirely (Qld).
As noted in the Introduction, a number of states are starting to explicitly remove supply of eggs to friends, neighbours, and workmates from their regulatory requirements around registration/accreditation and egg stamping. This is a welcome move.
However, suppliers should still ensure the eggs they supply are clean and uncracked, and supplied in clean containers, to reduce any salmonella risk.
Why would such supply be exempted? Because it’s easy to trace the egg source in this circumstance - and traceability is the entire premise of the Code. The supply is directly to someone known. If a salmonella outbreak requires tracing, it would be relatively easy to do.
Note, however, that this does not necessarily exempt the supplier from the requirement to have a Property Identification Code (PIC).
Listed in alphabetical order.
Australian Capital Territory
No online requirements could be easily found. Suggest complying with NSW requirements for production.
Note that there is a requirement to display signs clearly outlining the egg production method if selling eggs in the ACT, including at farmer’s markets:
New South Wales
Everything you need to know as a small egg farm is at the NSW Food Authority website. Note that “Small egg farms: are those that produce no more than 20 dozen (240) eggs for sale in any week.
Short version
Register with the authority (it’s free)
Get given an egg stamp. Which you don’t have to use if you’re selling from your farm gate - and that literally means from your gate. On your own property. (Be aware that this may have an impact on your house and contents insurance, as some insurers may defined this as “running a business”, so check first)
Ensure your eggs are clean and uncracked, and supplied either in clean new egg cartons, or are loose for customers to select and put in their own containers.
Ensure a best-before date of 6 weeks from the date of lay is clearly identified somewhere.
Easy.
Northern Territory
Updated 8.7.25
There is no page explicitly stating how egg sales should be managed - you’re referred to the national standards.
It does, however, specify that you must:
have a property identification code for your property if you keep poultry, regardless of the size of your property, the number of animals you have, or if they are pets
register a food business if you’re selling eggs to the public
Queensland
Give up now. Their regulations have clearly been influenced by the commercial suppliers. There are multiple hoops to jump through, each of which costs money, and it’s honestly not worth trying to comply.
Just ... don’t get caught.
South Australia
Has a rather sane requirement that states:
“Backyard producers who give eggs to friends and family do not need to be accredited.”
Nice.
If you’re looking to make sales, or supplying outside of friends or family, follow these requirements. Note the requirement for a PIC.
From the PIRSA website:
Egg producers must be accredited if you have more than 50 laying birds and produce and sell eggs:
to a food business such as a supermarket, café, hotel or bakery
to another egg producer
at a market such as a farmers' market
by wholesale.
If you are accredited for egg production, you must also have a property identification code (PIC).
Tasmania
Updated 8.7.25
Has its Egg Food Safety Scheme, which introduces a mandatory accreditation requirement for commercial egg producers based on the volume of eggs produced.
If you keep fewer than 20 egg-laying birds and only sell or supply directly to friends, family or work colleagues, you don’t need to register, or stamp your eggs.
If you produce less than 20 dozen eggs per week and sell to the general public, you don’t need accreditation but you do need to register with Biosecurity Tasmania; once you register, you’re supplied with an egg stamp.
The requirements are summarised in a handy PDF.
Victoria
Requirements depend on whether you have more or fewer than 50 egg-producing birds. Note PIC requirements.
From Food Safety for Egg Producers:
Under 50 birds:
As a home producer, you must:
control the food safety hazards associated with egg production
keep records of eggs sold or given away
You only need to tell them about your activities if you want an egg stamp code.
If you sell or give away eggs, you should apply for a poultry Property Identification Code (PIC) and an egg stamp code.
Over 50 birds:
If you have 50 or more birds producing eggs, you must:
notify them with your business details by applying for a Poultry PIC and for an egg stamp code
control the food safety hazards associated with egg production and never sell cracked or heavily soiled eggs
have and follow an approved food safety management statement, or be part of an approved industry or commercial quality assurance (QA) program
keep records of sales and supplies
See Complying with the egg production standard for information on your legal requirements to produce safe eggs.
Full list of requirements at Complying with the egg production standard.
Western Australia
Updated 10.7.25
Has got a bit confusing recently. Information about owning poultry, treating it as livestock, and handling/selling eggs seems to be scattered around a number of different websites, and none of them seems to take small-scale domestic production into consideration.
This Fact Sheet (PDF) on “Keeping backyard chickens safely” states:
Can I sell my eggs?
If you plan to sell your eggs, the WA Food Act 2008 requires you to register as a food business with your local government. It is illegal to sell eggs in WA without first being registered under the Food Act 2008. This includes selling eggs on the internet (e.g. Facebook, Gumtree).
Contact your local government for further information.
You are also required to mark your eggs with an identifier, which requires registration in a central database; you need a copy of your food business registration to register. This page states registration is voluntary, but since the requirement for stamping eggs is mandatory, it doesn’t sound very voluntary.
If you have 50 or more birds, you are also required to register for a PIC:
Owners of 50 or more poultry … are required to register with the department as livestock owners. Poultry, emu and ostrich abattoir operators must also register as non-farming property owners.
Poultry includes domestic chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowls, quails, pigeons, pheasants and partridges. The requirement to register applies if you own 50 or more of these birds, in any combination. Poultry owners are encouraged to register if they have fewer birds, but it is not mandatory.
Property Identification Codes (PIC)
From 1 September 2012, anyone who keeps or owns livestock anywhere in Australia is required to ensure the land on which the livestock are kept has a Property Identification Code or PIC. 'Livestock' includes one or more cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, deer, bison, buffalo, camelids, equines (i.e., horses and donkeys), 100 or more poultry birds or 10 or more emus or ostriches.
Note that some states require registration for a PIC if you have 50 or more poultry birds, in any combination of breeds (eg if you have 10 each of ducks, geese, chooks, guineafowl, and quail, you’ve reached the 50 bird limit).
Poultry birds includes domestic chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, guinea fowls, quails, pigeons, pheasants and partridges.
This is a national system, administered by each individual state.
Link to each state’s PIC application/information page.
ACT. Required if you have 100 or more poultry birds.
NSW. Required if you have 100 or more poultry birds.
NT. Required for any number of poultry birds, regardless of property type or purpose of animals.
QLD. You need to register as a Biosecurity entity, which will provide you with a PIC, if you have 100 or more poultry birds.
SA. Required if you’re a commercial eggs producer who is required to have food safety accreditation. May not therefore apply for domestic supply.
Tas. Is required, but unable to find specifics about when.
Vic. Required if you have 50 or more poultry birds.
WA. Required if you have 50 or more poultry birds.
Egg cartons, stamping, and non-compliant producers
My local shop sells grubby eggs in a second-hand container! What gives?
This is really incredibly annoying. Many of us are busting our guts to do the right thing and avoid making anyone unwell, but it seems many local retailers simply aren’t aware of their responsibilities in the egg supply chain.
This is a good little document from Victoria that might be worth subtly handing out to shops that are doing the wrong thing, and giving the rest of us a bad name.
How do I clean my eggs so they comply?
If they’ve come from the hen clean and unmarked, or with minor dirt that can be wiped off, then you don’t need to do any further cleaning.
If they’re grubby but you want to sell them, you can wash them in hot water. This excellent NSW Food Authority document outlines precisely how to do it.
Summary, starting from page 5 of the document. Bolding is mine.
As egg shells are porous, washing can allow microorganisms to enter through the pores of the shell. Eggs contract as they cool and may draw wash water into the egg. Therefore:
wash eggs as soon as they are collected. This will help limit the opportunity of contamination and loss of interior quality
wash water should be held at 41-44°C and if using egg washing chemical or sanitiser (e.g. Eggcellent1) the pH should be greater than 10.5 to minimise the potential for contamination to occur
the washing process should also be continuous so that eggs are not allowed to stand or soak in the wash water, and
eggs should be dried after washing. If egg shells are left wet the risk of microorganisms entering the egg is increased.
Also note that egg producers/graders that wash eggs must have a documented procedure for this process to ensure that contamination from the wash water is minimised.
Where do I find clean new egg cartons?
This section is regularly updated. Please let us know if you find a reliable source of cartons in Australia and we’ll add to the list.
Amazon and eBay can have sources as well.
Can I have my own egg stamp?
Yes. We do recommend sourcing a proper egg stamp – one made with a soft pad designed to go on stamps, and using a food-safe ink. Ordinary egg stamps with separate pads may risk bacterial contamination on the ink-pad.
Many states, such as NSW, will provide a free egg stamp and ink when you register with them. This tends to be a fairly boring number.
EggID makes the correct egg stamp, and you can request your own design.
Got any thoughts or feedback? Let us know in the comments!