Food businesses are required to provide clearly understood food safety management.
To help small businesses the Food Standards Agency (FSA), in conjunction with local authorities, produced a food safety management system for food businesses to adopt called the Safer Food Better Business pack.
If you require diary refill sheets for your Safer Food Better Business Pack, these can be downloaded from our Starting a food business page.
Their website has several versions of the Safer Food, Better Business packs available to download.
Food safety principles
The food safety management system is based on the following principles:
- good hygiene practices prevent cross-contamination
- effective cleaning removes harmful bacteria and stops them spreading
- effective chilling prevents harmful bacteria multiplying
- thorough cooking kills bacteria
- managers must be able to show what they do to make food safe - and have this written down.
Butchers
Butchers no longer require a licence to operate, but must still register with their local authority and operate hazard analysis and critical control points-based food safety management procedures.
