How to Open a Food Business in the UK: The Compliance Checklist

Before you open: the legal baseline

Every food business operating in the UK — whether a restaurant, café, takeaway, catering company, or home kitchen — must meet a set of legal requirements before trading. These are not optional extras; they are the minimum standard expected by your local authority and enforced by your Environmental Health Officer.

The good news is that the requirements are well documented and manageable. What follows is a practical walkthrough of each step.

Step 1: Register your food business

You must register your food business with your local authority at least 28 days before you begin trading. Registration is free and cannot be refused — but operating without it is an offence.

You will need to register even if you are:

• Running a food business from home
• Operating as a market stall or pop-up
• A childminder providing food to children in your care
• A charity or community group that regularly handles food

Registration is done through your local council. If you operate across multiple sites, each location must be registered separately.

Note that registration is different from approval. Most small food businesses only need to register. Approval is a higher standard required for businesses handling certain high-risk products — meat processing, dairy production, and similar. If you are unsure which applies to you, your local Environmental Health team can advise.

Step 2: Understand your HACCP obligation

Every food business in the UK is legally required to have a food safety management system based on HACCP principles. HACCP — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — is the framework used to identify and control food safety risks in your operation.

For most small businesses, the FSA's Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack is the accepted way to meet this requirement. It is free to download and designed specifically for smaller operators. It covers:

• Safe methods for cooking, chilling, and cleaning
• A diary for recording checks and any issues
• Guidance on management and opening and closing procedures

If you operate a larger or more complex business, a bespoke HACCP plan may be more appropriate. Our guide to what HACCP is and how it works covers the framework in detail, and our comparison of HACCP and SFBB helps you decide which approach fits your business.

Step 3: Get your allergen management in place

From day one, you must be able to provide accurate allergen information to your customers. This means knowing which of the 14 legally required allergens are present in every dish or product you sell.

If you sell food that is pre-packed for direct sale — a wrapped sandwich, a labelled cake, a meal-prep pot — Natasha's Law requires a full ingredients list on the packaging with allergens clearly emphasised.

Building an allergen matrix before you open — listing every dish and its allergen content — is the most reliable way to meet this requirement and keep information accurate as your menu evolves. Our guide to the 14 allergens covers each one in plain English.

Step 4: Set up your temperature controls

Temperature control is central to food safety. You are legally required to keep cold food at or below 8°C (though 5°C is the recommended standard) and hot food at or above 63°C. Foods that need temperature control for safety must not be left in the temperature danger zone — between 8°C and 63°C — for longer than necessary.

In practice this means:

• A calibrated probe thermometer for checking cooking and reheating temperatures
• Fridge and freezer thermometers, checked and recorded regularly
• A system for logging temperature checks — and acting on readings that are out of range

Your temperature records will be reviewed during an EHO inspection. Blank or retrospectively completed logs are a common reason for reduced scores in the management of food safety area.

Step 5: Establish your cleaning regime

Your premises must be kept clean and in good repair. This means having a documented cleaning schedule that covers all surfaces, equipment, and areas of the kitchen — and following it consistently.

A cleaning schedule should specify:

• What is being cleaned
• How often
• Which products are used
• Who is responsible

It does not need to be elaborate. A simple written schedule, kept up to date and signed off regularly, demonstrates to an inspector that cleaning is managed rather than ad hoc.

Our daily operations guide covers opening, cleaning, and closing procedures in detail.

Step 6: Train your staff

There is no single mandatory food hygiene qualification for food handlers in the UK, but food businesses are legally required to ensure that anyone handling food is supervised, instructed, or trained to a level appropriate for their role.

In practice, most food businesses will want staff to hold at least a Level 2 Award in Food Safety. This is a one-day course available from a range of accredited providers and covers the core principles inspectors will expect your team to understand.

Records of staff training should be kept and available to show an EHO on request.

Step 7: Prepare for your first inspection

Once you are trading, an EHO will visit — typically within the first year, though timing varies by local authority and risk level. The inspection will assess your food handling practices, the condition of your premises, and your food safety management system.

The most important thing you can do to prepare is to operate consistently from day one. Inspectors are experienced at identifying records that have been completed in a hurry. Businesses that build good habits early — completing records daily, acting on issues, training staff properly — tend to score well because the evidence is already there.

For a detailed breakdown of what inspectors look for in each area, see our guide to what EHO inspectors actually look for.

A compliance checklist at a glance

• [ ] Registered with local authority (at least 28 days before trading)
• [ ] SFBB pack completed or HACCP plan in place
• [ ] Allergen information documented for all dishes
• [ ] PPDS labelling in place if applicable (Natasha's Law)
• [ ] Temperature monitoring equipment in place and records being kept
• [ ] Cleaning schedule documented and being followed
• [ ] Staff food hygiene training completed and recorded
• [ ] Food safety records being maintained daily