What is Hubl?
Hubl is a digital food safety management app built and operated by Complete Food Safety (CFS), a UK food safety and health & safety consultancy based in the UK. It covers temperature recording, operational checklists, allergen management, document storage, food wastage tracking, incident logging, and a reporting dashboard.
The app is available on iOS and Android and operates across four pricing tiers — Tall, Grande, Venti, and Venti Plus — with features distributed across them. Hubl also serves as the entry point to Complete Food Safety's wider consultancy services, including FSMS documentation, food safety audits, and an ongoing helpline. These are available as paid add-ons beyond the software subscription.
What is Culinary Key?
Culinary Key is a food safety compliance platform built specifically for UK food businesses. Rather than covering the full spectrum of kitchen operations, it focuses exclusively on the compliance side — the records, checks, and documentation that the Food Standards Agency expects and that an Environmental Health Officer will ask for during an inspection.
The platform is built around the Safer Food Better Business framework. Every feature exists to support that structure — opening and closing checks, temperature logs, allergen management, HACCP safe methods, cleaning schedules, pest control records, delivery logs, inspection history, and monthly compliance reviews.
There are no pricing tiers. Every plan includes every feature from day one.
See everything that's included →
Pricing
Hubl operates across four tiers, priced per site per month:
| Hubl Tall | Hubl Grande | Hubl Venti | Hubl Venti Plus | Culinary Key | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly (per site) | £19 | £32 | £45 | £65+ | £40 |
| Annual (per site) | £17.50 | £29 | £41 | £65+ | £33 |
| Allergen management | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reporting dashboard | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Risk assessments | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Incident log | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| FSMS documentation | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Minimum contract | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | 12 months | None |
| All compliance features included | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Hubl's entry Tall plan at £19/month covers temperature logs, pre-built checklists, and delivery recording. For a food business with any allergen management requirements — which includes almost every UK food business — that plan is not a viable compliance tool. Allergen management requires Grande at £32/month.
To get risk assessments and incident logging — both records an EHO inspector will expect to see — you move to Venti at £45/month. For a personalised Food Safety Management System with ongoing consultancy support, Venti Plus starts at £65/month on a 12-month contract.
In real numbers: an independent operator who needs allergens, reporting, risk assessments, and incident logging is on Hubl Venti at £45/month. The same operator on Culinary Key pays £40/month with every compliance feature included and no minimum contract.
For a 5-site operator the difference is more pronounced. Hubl Venti comes to £225/month. Culinary Key comes to £175/month with no lock-in and no features held back. Over a year that's £2,700 versus £2,100.
For a 10-site operator, Hubl Venti comes to £450/month. Culinary Key, with the volume discount that applies from ten sites, comes to £300/month. That's £1,800 per year saved on compliance tools that are fully included either way.
Features
| Feature | Hubl Tall | Hubl Grande | Hubl Venti | Culinary Key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature logs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Operational checklists | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Delivery records | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Allergen management | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reporting dashboard | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Document storage | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Risk assessments | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Food wastage tracking | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Incident log | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| HACCP safe methods | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pest control log | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| FHRS inspection history | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Monthly SFBB compliance review | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| New starter induction records | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-site management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Minimum contract | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days | None |
| All features included | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
A few things worth noting on the feature table.
Hubl's Tall plan excludes allergen management entirely. For any UK food business handling ingredients containing the 14 mandated allergens, this is a meaningful gap — Natasha's Law places a clear legal responsibility on the business to provide accurate allergen information. Signing up to the entry plan to save money and skipping allergen management is a compliance risk that outweighs the saving.
Hubl Venti includes food wastage tracking — a useful operational tool for reducing costs. Culinary Key includes a waste log for the same purpose. Both cover the same ground here.
Culinary Key includes features not present in any Hubl tier — SFBB safe methods, pest control logs, FHRS inspection history, monthly compliance reviews, and new starter induction records. These are not advanced or enterprise features. They are the day-to-day compliance records that EHO inspectors specifically ask to see during visits.
A note on the consultancy model: Hubl is built and operated by Complete Food Safety, a food safety consultancy. The software is a genuine, capable product — but it is also the entry point to a wider consultancy offering that includes FSMS documentation, audits, and ongoing helpline support, all available at additional cost. If you want software plus ongoing expert consultancy wrapped into one relationship, Hubl's model suits that well. If you want to manage your own compliance digitally at a transparent price, that is a different kind of product.
See the full Culinary Key feature breakdown →
UK regulatory focus
Both products operate in the UK market. The difference is how specifically they are built around how UK food safety regulation works in practice.
Hubl covers food safety management from an operational perspective — temperature recording, checklists, allergens, document storage, incidents. The feature set is solid and the app is well-designed. What it does not reflect explicitly is the structure of the FSA's Safer Food Better Business framework — there is no SFBB alignment, no FHRS inspection tracking, no monthly compliance review prompt, and no structured safe methods library. These are not minor details. They are the specific records an EHO inspector will reference during a visit.
Culinary Key is built exclusively around UK food safety compliance. The Safer Food Better Business framework, the 14 UK-mandated allergens, FHRS ratings, HACCP safe methods, and monthly compliance reviews are not add-ons — they are the product. When an EHO visits and asks for your delivery records, pest control log, or safe methods, everything is structured and ready.
Who is Hubl better for?
Hubl makes most sense for operators who want a capable food safety app with the option to escalate into managed consultancy support — FSMS documentation, professional audits, and an ongoing helpline. If you want software and a consultancy relationship in one place, and have the budget for Venti or above, Hubl has that infrastructure. It is also well suited to businesses that need health and safety management alongside food safety, as Venti Plus covers both.
Who is Culinary Key better for?
Culinary Key is built for independent food businesses and small multi-site operators — cafés, restaurants, bakeries, catering operations — that need to be compliant and inspection-ready without paying for features they will not use or navigating tiers to reach a complete compliance toolkit.
If you run between one and ten sites, want every compliance feature included at a transparent price with no minimum contract, and need a tool built specifically around how UK food safety regulation works in practice, Culinary Key is worth a look.
Conclusion
Hubl is a well-built food safety app with a clear consultancy pedigree. For operators who want software plus an ongoing expert relationship, it serves that need. For independent and small multi-site operators who need full UK compliance coverage at a predictable price — allergens, HACCP, FHRS tracking, monthly reviews, and inspection-ready records — reaching that level on Hubl requires the third or fourth tier. Culinary Key includes everything from the first day, at one price, with no tiers and no minimum contract.