The number of food safety warnings issued to Canberra's restaurants, cafes and pubs has doubled in two years while dozens of closure orders were made in the past 12 months.
Food venues across the ACT were hit with 267 improvement notices in 2025-26, a more than 25 per cent increase on the previous financial year and double the number issued in 2023-24, according to the Health and Community Services Directorate.
The ACT Health Protection Service issued 26 prohibition orders in 2025-26, forcing dozens of food businesses to close for a period of time.
According to the service, 16 prohibition orders were issued on the grounds it was necessary to mitigate a serious danger to public health, and 10 because the business failed to comply with an improvement notice.
It follows a significant increase in prohibition orders made in the 2024-25 financial year, with 26 prohibition orders issued, compared to seven the previous year.
Several high-profile closures included Public pub in Manuka, which was closed for two days one week before Christmas, Farmers Daughter in Yarralumla and popular banh mi spot The Vietnamese Bakery & Cafe in Fyshwick which was shut in August. The causes of the closures are not publicly known.
A Health and Community Services spokesperson noted the proportion of prohibition orders made per number food inspections was lower, from 1.05 per cent in 2024-25 to 0.75 per cent in 2025-26.
ACT Health officers conducted 3446 food safety inspections over the financial year, a significant increase on 2024-25 when 2472 inspections were made.
Prohibition orders are made in the event of critical food safety breaches, requiring the business to be closed until it is deemed safe. The most common breaches of food safety compliance during inspections include hand-washing facilities, general cleaning, temperature control and monitoring and pest control, according to the health directorate website.
As of June 30, there were 3778 registered food businesses in the ACT.
In February, a senior government official told The Canberra Times pests were a "key" matter concerning the health directorate.
Not all closures by the health department are food-related. More recently, Raijin Japanese in Belconnen announced it was closing for renovations after being shut down by the health department for infrastructure issues in July 2026.
"The work required for our restaurant involves major upgrades due to the age of the premises, which is why we are unable to reopen in a short period of time," the restaurant said on Facebook.
"Our restaurant 'site' has been here for over 20 years, and many parts of the building have naturally aged over time. This includes areas such as the ceilings, flooring, walls, bathroom facilities, and other parts of the premises that now need to be upgraded to meet current requirements."
The restaurant management said it had planned to begin renovation work after winter, but were forced to start earlier after receiving a prohibition order.
