Find out about food hygiene legislation and what you need to do to manage food safety in your business.
Food hygiene regulations require you to have a written food safety management system. You must be able to show what you do to make or sell food that is safe to eat and have this written down.
To help small businesses do this easily, the Food Standards Agency has developed Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) packs.
Safer Food, Better Business Packs
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Safer Food, Better Business Pack for Retailers (external link) - download the pack for small retail businesses such as small convenience stores, corner shops and confectioners, tobacconists and newsagents.
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Safer Food, Better Business Pack for Caterers (external link) - download the pack for small catering businesses such as restaurants, cafés and takeaways. The pack contains sheets for you to work through and complete, called ‘safe methods’, and a diary for you to fill in every day.
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Vacuum Packing Safe Method Page Insert for SFBB Pack - you can download this locally produced insert in PDF format at the foot of this page. Produced by Chichester District Council on behalf of councils in Sussex, for butchers, small caterers and retailers to use with the SFBB pack.
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SFBB Packs for Different Cuisines (external link) - versions of the catering pack adapted for small businesses such as restaurants and takeaways that serve either Chinese cuisine or Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cuisines. The Chinese cuisine pack is also available in Cantonese language (external link).
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Safer Food, Better Business for Care Homes (external link) - a supplement to the catering pack to help caterers and staff working in small residential care homes prepare and cook safer food for their residents. The supplement is not intended for use in nursing homes, because there may be other food safety procedures that need to be applied, which are not covered by SFBB, for example a full infection control policy.
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Safer Food, Better Business for Childminders (external link) - a pack with simple, straightforward advice on food safety for childminders, including information on feeding babies and children, cooking, cleaning, chilling and looking after a child with a food allergy.
Completing Your SFBB Diary
Once you have set up your food safety management system by working through the safe methods in the SFBB packs, you will have a record of what your business does to make sure the food is safe to eat. This will only need to be reviewed and amended if you change the way your food business operates.
After doing your regular checks, signing a diary sheet is the only daily record you usually need to complete. This should only take a couple of minutes each day. However, if something goes wrong in your business, you should write this in, with a note of how you put things right.
You should also review your diary every four weeks and if you change the type of food you produce, or change how you work, style of cooking or use of new equipment.
Ordering Diary Refill Sheets
Refill sheets for the diary can be ordered from the Food Standards Agency - telephone 0845 606 0667 or email foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk, or you can download and print them from the links above.
You should store all your completed diary pages safely until your next visit from one of our Environmental Health Officers. He or she may want to look at your diary pages. During the visit, check with the officer how long he or she wants you to keep your diary pages.
Getting Help and Advice
Our Environmental Health Officers can help and advise local businesses in Eastbourne on managing food safety and Safer Food Better Business - our contact details are below. We also publish advice leaflets and guidance:
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Advice Leaflets and Guidance for Caterers - our leaflets on preventing cross contamination, essentials of personal hygiene and hand washing, preparing and cooking doner kebabs, managing chilled display cabinets, and vacuum packing. Links to FSA guidance on control of E.coli, food handlers fitness to work, temperature control law and caterers advice on eggs.
Vacuum Packing SFBB Safe Method
