Tasting the food at different stalls is one of the pleasures of visiting Brisbane's markets, but farmers are giving up on the practice of offering a slice of apple or other fruit because of a rule forcing them to pay more than $700 to do so.
Apple farmer Mario Giacosa has sold produce at Brisbane markets for nearly 20 years but has stopped offering free slices because of a Brisbane City Council rule requiring he pay an annual fee of $733.90 for a "food business licence".
The licence, which puts farmers in the same category as food truck operators the minute they cut a piece of fruit or vegetable, also comes with strict criteria around handwashing facilities and requires them to put toothpicks in their fruit samples.
It's a rotter for producers from the Lockyer Valley and Granite Belt, who say offering a "taste-before-you-buy" gives customers a chance to sample the freshness and varieties of flavour that lends them a vital edge against the supermarket sector.
They have suggested there could at least be some other permit that doesn't require a full $700 food licence.
Mr Giacosa, whose family has been growing apples at Thulimbah, north of Stanthorpe, for 72 years, is harvesting a bumper season of royal gala, Jonathans, "grannies" and summer delicious varieties. It means 4am starts and the picking continues to about 7pm each day.
He leaves at midnight with his truck loaded for the Mt Gravatt Markets every Sunday – and previously at a Cannon Hill market – but no longer offers cut fruit from his stalls.
"I surrendered my licence last year … it's just not worth the hassle," he said.
Mr Giacosa said by surrendering his food licence he no longer faced the need for regular audits and the threat of fines for not meeting all the requirements of a licensed food operator.
"If you're not complying with all the demands, that's when the fines start escalating," he said.
He said he knew of a pineapple grower who had given up his stall altogether after frustrations over the many requirements.
"There are so many grey areas. You can never really win. I just shake my head sometimes," Mr Giacosa said.
Look at the great markets and eating districts of the world, the places you travel to, that have open sacks of spices and hanging salamis… they're not sterile places, they're wonderful
Gian Ferrett, who manages the Kelvin Grove Village Markets, said she knew of fresh produce stall holders who had received fines of hundreds of dollars for not complying with the requirements of the "cutting licence".
She said it was particularly unfair for growers for whom English is a second language who grapple sometimes with the finer details – the specific necessity of commercial-grade sanitiser at the handwashing facility, for example.
"They're a bit over-concerned with health and safety here in Brisbane," she said.
"Look at the great markets and eating districts of the world, the places you travel to, that have open sacks of spices and hanging salamis … they're not sterile places, they're wonderful."
Ms Ferrett said one stallholder was fined several hundred dollars last year for not having his cutting table and handwashing facility set up in his stall early on Saturday. He'd argued that he had not finished setting up his large stall for the day but his plea for a reprieve went unanswered.
"They (council health inspectors) are worried about people using a knife to cut a dirty pumpkin then using it to cut a watermelon," Ms Ferrett said.
"...They were even talking about washing watermelons with sanitiser. "
She said many stall holders were exasperated by the rules.
"If someone asks you to cut that bunch of celery in half, you want to be able to do that for them."
A Kelvin Grove stallholder from the Granite Belt, Mark Brunckhorst, baulks at the idea of the $700 licence.
"I'm not going to get it just to cut apples up," he says.
"They say we have to put a toothpick into every piece of fruit we cut, too."
Mr Brunckhorst, who's been a regular at Kelvin Grove for more than a decade, recalls a time when there was no problem with cutting up an apple for his customers.
"You used to be able to here and I think you still can on the Gold Coast," he said.
A council spokesman said that "under the state government's Food Act 2006, a mobile food truck or stall operating in Queensland where food preparation is undertaken requires a food business licence".
"Food businesses require a licence for the manufacture, preparation or sale of unpackaged food, except for the sale of whole fruit or vegetables," he said.