How To Do You Start A New Food Business?

Food Businesses must be registered with their local council or local authority prior to opening, or at least before the new food premises is being used.   Many councils will specify that any new operating food business must be registered with the appropriate local authority 28 days before it is set to be used or any activities with food are undertaken, so be aware of this when setting up your new business.

In order to comply with the law, as a food handler or owner of a food business, all of your food premises must be registered, which applies directly to any individual units or other sections of the food premises that are involved or undertaking food activity.  More specifically, the individual units and other food sections that are undertake any production stage relating to food, aswell as processing food and distributing food, then they must be registered with the local authority.

If you wish to find out more information on registration of food premises, the actual registration legal requirement can be found in EC regulation 852, (2004) in the hygiene of foodstuffs section in Article 6.

If you are unsure as to whether you are included as a food handler or whether you need to register your food premises, it is useful to define what qualifies as a food premises, so if you match up to one of the following examples, you will fall under the registration legal requirement.   The examples are: supermarkets, shops, hotels, restaurants, cafes, office’s kitchens and staff canteens, vehicles (delivery or otherwise, including trains), markets, retail stalls, street vendors like ice cream or hot dogs, and there are many more than just these.  You will learn more about food hygiene regulations and the law by getting your staff to complete online food hygiene courses.

It isn’t any more complicated for you if the particular food premises are located over a number of areas, for example, in different locations or counties.   All that this means in this instance is that the food business will need to be registered individually with the local authority it is located in, so each one would have to be registered separately.   For vehicles such as fish vans, or an ice cream van for example, then registration will need to be done by the owner of the vehicle itself with the local council or local authority wherever the food vehicle is typically left.

The fastest way to achieve and complete registration is to via an online application form on the local council or local authority website.   A quick search on Google will help you find this right way, but the Directgov website also has an Alphabetical A to Z list of local councils and local authorities together with a comprehensive list of links to their websites and their contact details, so telephone numbers will also be shown.