Food and beverage lawyer Melbourne — practical legal counsel for F&B businesses

The food and beverage industry in Melbourne is one of the most exciting — and one of the most legally exposed — sectors to operate in. Between regulator obligations under the FSANZ Code, retailer agreements that often contain one-sided indemnities, supplier relationships that can collapse mid-season, and an Australian Consumer Law that takes no prisoners on misleading claims, F&B founders need a lawyer who understands the industry and can give plain, commercial advice. That's what we do at Fogarty Oliver Rothschild.

At a glance — what a food and beverage lawyer does

The legal challenges F&B businesses actually face

Most F&B businesses don't have an in-house lawyer until they're well past their first $5m in revenue. Until then, the founder is the legal team — which is fine for the day-to-day, but expensive when a regulator turns up, a retailer enforces a clawback, or a supplier disputes a payment. The work we do for F&B clients usually falls into one of these:

Commercial contracts

The legal centre of gravity in food and beverage is the network of supply, distribution and retailer contracts. We routinely review and negotiate:

• Supplier agreements — pricing, quality, exclusivity, IP carve-outs, termination, force-majeure (which after the COVID and supply-chain shocks of 2020–2024, no F&B business should leave on standard form).
• Co-packer and co-manufacturer agreements — including IP and recipe protection, quality obligations, recall responsibility, and the dispute-resolution mechanism.
• Distributor agreements — exclusivity, minimum-volume commitments, marketing-development funds, return rights, end-of-life inventory.
• Retailer terms of trade — particularly with major chains (Coles, Woolworths, IGA-Metcash, Costco) where the standard supply agreements carry significant indemnities and clawback rights that need to be scoped sensibly.
• Hospitality supply contracts — wholesale to restaurants, café groups, hotel groups.
• Export agreements — including international distribution, INCOTERMS, foreign label compliance and dispute-resolution jurisdiction.

Regulatory compliance

The food and beverage regulatory framework in Australia is multi-layered. Federal rules under the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Code, state rules under the Food Act 1984 (Vic) and the equivalent legislation in other states, sector-specific licensing through PrimeSafe and Dairy Food Safety Victoria, and overarching consumer-law obligations under the Australian Consumer Law. See our companion guide on food regulatory compliance in Australia for the full regulatory breakdown.

Labelling and claims

This is where most F&B brands get into trouble without realising it. Country-of-origin claims under the Australian Consumer Law (the "Made in Australia" / "Product of Australia" / "Packed in Australia" distinctions), nutrition content claims under Standard 1.2.7 of the Food Standards Code, health claims (general-level vs high-level), descriptive terms with regulator scrutiny ("natural", "fresh", "premium", "artisan"), sustainability and ethical claims, and the new Plain English Allergen Labelling (PEAL) requirements — all of these are areas where a smart brand can differentiate, and where a careless one can attract regulator attention or a competitor complaint.

Brand and IP protection

Names, logos, trade dress, recipes and proprietary processes are the real long-term value in an F&B business. We work with you on trade mark strategy (often as part of a coordinated approach with a specialist trade mark attorney), licensing structures, and the IP protection clauses in your supplier, distributor and employee contracts.

Recalls and incident management

When something goes wrong — a foreign-body contamination, a labelling error, an allergen incident — the first 24 hours matter. We provide lawyer-led incident management: triage, regulator communication under the FSANZ-coordinated national recall system, customer communications, brand and insurance coordination, and post-incident review with legal professional privilege over the diagnostic work.

M&A and growth-stage transactions

For F&B businesses approaching a capital raise, a strategic sale or an investor exit, we run the legal-due-diligence and contract negotiation, coordinating with your accountant and corporate adviser. F&B M&A has its own quirks — recipe IP, key-customer concentration, regulator dependencies, working-capital cycles around seasonality — and we know them.

Hospitality-side issues

For our hospitality-group and food-service clients, we handle commercial leases (particularly the percentage-rent and fit-out clauses that bite), liquor licensing (with the appropriate VCGLR liaison), employment and contractor issues, supplier disputes, and occupier's-liability matters.

Common scenarios

• An emerging beverage brand is signing a Coles supply agreement and needs the indemnities, MDF and de-listing clauses negotiated before signing.
• A specialty food importer has had a consignment held at the border and needs urgent compliance and BICON-related advice.
• A multi-site café group is acquiring a competitor and needs M&A diligence and contract negotiation.
• A growth-stage brand wants to make a "Made in Australia" claim and needs the substantiation memo and the labelling sign-off.
• A producer has discovered a labelling error after the product is in retail and needs advice on whether a recall is required and how to manage it.
• A boutique alcohol producer is rolling out a new product range and needs regulatory clearance on the labelling, the health/wellbeing claims, and the licensing.

Why us

Three things — and we say this honestly:

1. Senior-lawyer service. You work with Elisa directly, not a junior. The advice you get on a complicated retailer contract or a regulator response is from someone with 14 years of practice and a working understanding of how food law and consumer law actually play out in Victoria.
2. Commercial sensibility. Lawyers can be reflexively cautious in ways that kill commercial opportunities. We try to land each piece of advice with a clear answer about what to do, not just a list of risks. We tell you when a risk is real and when it's theoretical.
3. The full picture. Food and beverage businesses have legal issues that touch contracts, regulator compliance, IP, employment, property, M&A, and (occasionally) the founder's own personal estate planning and family law. Having one lawyer who can see across all of that, and who you can call when something unexpected happens, is more valuable than any one specialist on their own.

Frequently asked questions

We're a small business. Do we really need a lawyer on retainer?

Not necessarily a retainer — many of our F&B clients work with us project-by-project (contract review, regulator response, launch clearance) and call us when something unusual comes up. Other clients prefer a fixed-fee monthly arrangement that gives them on-demand access. We tailor the engagement to your size and the actual legal cadence of your business. The first conversation is free and helps us recommend the right model.

Coles wants me to sign their standard supply agreement. Can I negotiate it?

Yes, more than most founders realise — particularly on indemnity scope, MDF commitments, de-listing terms, exclusivity, IP carve-outs and recall-cost allocation. Major retailers won't move on the commercial pricing or core terms, but the legal terms typically have negotiating room. We routinely negotiate retailer supply agreements for growth-stage brands and have a clear sense of what can and can't be moved.

Do you handle alcoholic beverages too?

Yes. The regulatory picture for alcoholic beverages adds liquor licensing (under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 (Vic), administered by the VCGLR), excise (administered by the ATO), and additional restrictions on labelling and claims (in particular, no claims about health benefits). The commercial picture (supplier, distributor, retailer agreements) is broadly similar to non-alcoholic F&B but with the additional licensing overlay. We act for boutique alcohol producers, wine and spirit brands, and beverage importers.

We're considering an export push to Asia. Can you advise?

We can advise on the Australian end — supply agreements, IP protection, foreign-distribution structuring, INCOTERMS, payment terms and Australian regulator interactions. For the destination-country regulatory and tax position, we coordinate with foreign legal advisers. For larger export programs we run an integrated legal workstream alongside Austrade and your accountant.

A competitor has launched a product with a similar name. What can we do?

If your brand is properly trade-marked, there are clear paths — letters of demand, IP Australia oppositions, and litigation if it comes to that. If you haven't yet registered the trade mark, the first conversation is about registration urgency, plus passing-off and misleading-and-deceptive-conduct claims under the Australian Consumer Law that don't require registration. We can move quickly on these.

A retailer has de-listed our product mid-promotion. What are our rights?

It depends entirely on the supply agreement — termination rights, notice obligations, marketing-development-fund commitments, end-of-life inventory clauses. We can review the agreement, identify what's been breached (if anything), and negotiate or litigate the recovery. De-listing disputes are common and the outcome usually turns on the specific contract terms.

Get F&B legal advice today

Whether you're launching a product, signing with a retailer, dealing with a regulator, managing an incident, or preparing for a sale, the first conversation is free, in confidence and without obligation. Send the enquiry form with a brief note about your business and what's going on, and Elisa will personally call you back — usually the same day. For urgent matters (an imminent regulator response, a recall, a contested supply termination), say so and we'll prioritise the callback.