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.