NSW food safety lab staff walk off job

About 100 staff from NSW's public food safety lab have walked off the job for an afternoon claiming plans to axe the facility could put the community at risk.

The food testing branch of the Forensic Analytical Science Services (FASS) is set to be shut down after the Food Authority didn't renew its contract, flagging a move to private tender.

About 17 scientists and technical officers from the Lidcombe lab in Sydney's west are set to lose their jobs.

Health Services Union NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said without the robust testing of an independent lab, the community's welfare could be put at risk.

"Making that subject to contracts limits the ability to make sure that there is a truly independent process," he told AAP.

"There's absolutely no argument for commercialising this work."

He said the move was "just another step" in newly-installed NSW Premier Mike Baird's plan to privatise the state's health services.

But in a statement, NSW Health Pathology said the current arrangement between NSW Food Authority and FASS was already based on a commercial contract.

It said the NSW Food Authority works with a range of commercial food testing laboratories and has previously employed 18 approved analysts working in commercial labs.

FASS director Kevin Forward said food testing wasn't a large part of the facility's business.

"The decision also means the NSW Food Authority will be able to benefit from a wider range of expertise that exists in the marketplace," he said.