One of the burning questions that people have when setting up a food business is “Do I need to register anywhere and if so who with?” Here we aim to go through the requirements for who does and does not need to register.
In general, all businesses that sell or produce food on a regular basis will need to register with their local authority, which is usually their local council.
The law requires you to register with your local Authorities Health & Safety department, any service or activity where food is supplied, given away or sold by what they refer to as “Undertakings”. They define “undertakings” as service or activities which have “certain continuity of activities and a certain degree of organisation”.
This means that businesses such as restaurants, cafes and take-aways, caterers, mobile catering and food pop ups, food vans, companies selling online, food stalls, mail order and food delivery and companies involved with food distribution or supply that operate from an office will need to register.
All Food supplied, sold or provided outside of the domestic setting is subject to Uk food laws and legally must be safe to eat. This is regardless of whether or not you are selling the food. Food must be fit for human consumption and not be injurious to health.
There is a specific exemption for school fetes and the like which we will look at further on. If you’re a child-minder or run a nursery and provide food for the children you look after, Ofsted will register you as a food business, using the details you provided to them, so you will not have to register separately.
However the definition of an “Undertaking” is not as clear cut as it may seem. Interpretation of the law is left to individual authorities, based on guidance provided by the Food Standards Agency, so let’s look at it in a little more detail.
The FSA feel that any service that provides food at least once a month on a regular basis who have “a certain continuity of activities”. However, if you are operating something with much more complex food processing, they say that it would be appropriate to treat things happening less often than this as having continuity. Your local authority has the final say on what is considered continuous however, in general anyone providing food services at least one each month, can be considered as having a continuity of activity.
By organisation, they don’t mean only big companies must register. This is all about how much organisation, planning and safety measures are required to keep the food you are serving safe to eat. When looking at this point, the local authority look at the risks to consumer health from your proposed activities. This means considering;
In most cases it becomes obvious that registration is necessary, anyone running a full or part time catering or manufacturing business would need to. Most regular community events will expect to be serving at risk groups such as the elderly and young children and would need to show that they have taken into account the extra risks preparing food for these groups have. As such they would often be classed as having “a certain degree of organisation”
If you are just supplying tea and biscuits and other ready to eat low risk foods then you would usually not need a large amount of organisation to keep things safe. Likewise, an event with a small members only or invited guest list would require less organisation then an event open to the general public, as there is less risk to the general public health and you can have more control and knowledge of the at risk groups involved.
If you are the local chapter of a national organisation or charity like the Scouts,The Royal British Legion or the WI then unless the service you are providing is centrally organised, only the organisation and continuity of activities by the local branch would be looked at so as not to penalise larger organisations.
You should remember that you need to have both a certain continuity of activities and a certain degree of organisation to need to register, it is possible to have one and not the other.
The law which requires registration of food provision is Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. This was enacted as part of The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 with corresponding legislation in Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland.
In the guidance document issued alongside the law it states:
“Operations such as the occasional handling, preparation, storage and serving of food by private persons at events such as church, school or village fairs are not covered by the scope of the Regulation.”
‘Somebody who handles, prepares, stores or serves food occasionally and on a small scale (e.g. a church, school or village fair and other situations such as organised charities comprising individual volunteers where the food is prepared occasionally) cannot be considered as an ‘undertaking’ and is therefore not subject to the requirements of EU hygiene legislation.”
What this means in practice is that one off and irregular events like church, school and village fairs, annual coffee mornings and the like should not require registration. In fact, most of the situations this exemption covers would in fact not require registering anyway, due to the lack of continuity or organisation anyway.
The Food Standards Agency provide a list of example of situations where registration is unlikely and likely to be required. As stated above the final decision rests with your local authority how will take the FSA advice into account. We have included these examples below.
Situation: A one-off event such as a church or school fete, or a street party.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have ‘continuity’. Organisers of large community events should read the FSA’s Catering Q&A for charity and community groups providing food Q&A and / or contact the local authority for practical advice.
Situation: Daily small-scale provision in the weekday afternoons of low-risk foods by community / charity volunteers, such as provision of tea and biscuits in a church hall.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’. This is because it is low-risk and small-scale provision. However, if complex food safety controls are in place or high-risk foods are served then registration would be required
Situation: School breakfast club where volunteers supply simple breakfast foods like toast and cereal and orange juice which is given to children and/or toddlers for two or three hours each day during term-time.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’. The food provided is low-risk (even though infants are the target consumer) and small scale. Note: School kitchens will already be registered with the LA as food businesses, so if breakfast food is supplied by the school kitchen’s staff then this should be considered as part of the kitchen’s business activity.
Situation: A village hall event held about six times per year where a two course hot meal is served to about sixty people including elderly persons. The food is cooked at home by volunteers and is reheated in the hall kitchen prior to consumption.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have ‘continuity’ As with Example 1, organisers of large community events, even if infrequent, should read the FSA’s Catering Q&A. The FSA also advises that organisers of such larger scale events contact the local authority for practical advice.
Situation: A small food bank operating for just an hour or two per day on an infrequent basis by volunteers collecting tinned and packaged foodstuffs not requiring temperature control donated by for distribution to local people.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’. The holding of such food is relatively low-risk.
Situation: Scout or Guide camp lasting a few days at a time and cooking food.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not have to ‘continuity’.
Situation: Infrequent provision of food by members of a club or society for their shared consumption at a private event.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’ (and may not have ‘continuity’).
Situation: Amateur drama group serving packaged foods and soft drinks for audiences for limited periods.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have ‘degree of organisation’ and possibly not ‘continuity’.
Situation: A church hall providing food made by volunteers for mourners after a funeral. Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have ‘continuity’ and may not have a ‘degree of organisation’ as a restricted event.
Situation: A 'cooking club' where members bring in the food ingredients or pay the course leader to supply the ingredients. Those attending learn to cook using equipment in the hall and then all sit down to eat together or take food home.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’ (and may not have ‘continuity’).
Situation: A 'foraging course/event' or similar where a group of people gather wild products (e.g. blackberries, mushrooms, wild garlic, nettles, rosehips for cordials, sloes for ‘sloe gin’) which are brought back to a hall and cooked or otherwise handled and eaten. Such courses may last a few hours and held over weekends throughout the year and daily in July and August.
Registration: No
Reason: Considered not to have a ‘degree of organisation’.
Situation: Monthly provision of free hot food by a faith group in a hall to local people.
Registration: Yes
Reason: The fact that the food is provided free does not affect the consideration in this case
Situation: A community café opening for three days per week on a pay-what-you-can basis offering food which has been donated by other businesses and by individuals.
Registration: Yes
Reason: The fact that the food is donated does not affect the consideration in this case.
Situation: A sports club serving hot meals regularly during the season (e.g. an amateur football club serving food every other Saturday from September through to May to club members and visitors).
Registration: Yes
Reason: Food provision in these situations does involve both continuity of activity and a degree of organisation.
Situation: A charity volunteer operation organising the daily collection of sandwiches from supermarkets for distribution to homeless people.
Registration: Yes
Reason: Food provision in these situations does involve both continuity of activity and a degree of organisation.
Situation: A small community centre supplying approximately a dozen persons with free hot food for two lunchtimes per week. Some of the food has been prepared by volunteers at home.
Registration: Yes
Reason: Food provision in these situations does involve both continuity of activity and a degree of organisation.
Situation: A volunteer-run operation providing hot soup and bread to homeless persons each evening.
Registration: Yes
Reason: Food provision in these situations does involve both continuity of activity and a degree of organisation.
A communal kitchen space such as those found in village halls and community spaces, used by several groups does not need registering as a food business in its own right, however each of the group of users would potentially need to register themselves. This can lead to the one location having several Food Hygiene Ratings, one for each applicable activity. The hall owners would still have overall responsibility to ensure the kitchen met all relevant regulations.
Hopefully this has given some clarity to the issue of “Do I need to register”. Local authorities base their work on the guidance from the FSA, however if you have any doubt you should contact your Local Authority for advice.
If you would like to know more about what happens once your business is registered then check out our articles How Often are Food Hygiene Inspections Carried Out?, How to Get a 5 Star Food Hygiene Rating and How do I prepare for a Food Hygiene Inspection? which cover the first mandatory inspection you will recieve.
To find out more about what train you should give your staff read What level food hygiene certificate do I need? and Do you need a food hygiene certificate to sell cakes for charity?
