Running a food business from home: registering, your kitchen, labels and records

Law in all four nations Cooking for your own household is outside food hygiene law. Making food for other people to buy, or to be given out by a group, can bring you inside it. The law applies to an "undertaking", which it describes as having "a certain continuity of activities and a certain degree of organisation". Money is not the test: a business can run at a loss, or for a charity, and still be a food business.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland GOV.UK says that supplying food "on a regular and organised basis" makes you a food business, whether you charge for it or not. Food Standards Agency (FSA) guidance on community and charity events adds that where the activity is very limited and infrequent, the council may decide registration is not needed. Neither gives a number: the council judges each case.

Guidance from some councils Some councils treat food given out at community events less often than once a month as not needing registration. That is about community events, not paid orders. A Welsh council pack says registration is needed wherever food is provided on a regular basis, "regardless of whether you are making money or not".

Our advice Taking orders, advertising, having a price list and selling to people outside your household all point to a business. No law sets a number of orders. Registering costs nothing, and trading without registering when you should is an offence. If you are not sure, email your council's food team, describe what you make and how often, and keep the reply.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Use the online register a food business service on GOV.UK, which passes your details to your council, at least 28 days before you start. On the form, tick the box for a home used for a food business. Registration also covers businesses that only sell online. It is free and cannot be refused.

Guidance in Scotland Register with your council's environmental health service at least 28 days before you start. Food Standards Scotland says selling food online, including on social media, is running a food business, and that your social media profile should say which council you are registered with.

The form, the 28 days, what happens if you are already trading and how a market stall fits in are all in our guide to registering a food business. What happens after you register is in our first food hygiene inspection guide.

Law in all four nations The law has a short chapter for premises "used primarily as a private dwelling-house" where food is regularly prepared to sell. In plain words:

• the kitchen is kept clean and in good repair, so food is not contaminated, "in particular by animals and pests";
• you can wash and dry your hands hygienically, and there are suitable toilet arrangements;
• worktops and other surfaces that touch food are in sound condition and easy to clean and disinfect;
• you can clean and disinfect your utensils and equipment;
• if you wash food, you can do it hygienically;
• you have enough hot or cold drinking water;
• you can store and get rid of waste, and keep cleaning chemicals away from food;
• you can keep food at the right temperature and check it;
• food is placed so that it is not contaminated.

Most of these apply "where necessary", so this part of the law is short. Councils fill in the detail in their own guidance, and they do not all say the same thing. The next two sections show where they agree and where they differ.

Law in all four nations That chapter is only about the room. The rest of the hygiene rules apply in a home kitchen as they do anywhere else: personal hygiene, not handling food while you are ill, protecting food from contamination, keeping chilled food cold, wrapping and packing it cleanly, training, and procedures based on HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) principles (section 6). Pests have to be kept out too: see our pest control guide.

Our advice Do not make food to sell while you have vomiting or diarrhoea, and wait until you have been clear of symptoms for 48 hours. The 48 hours comes from guidance, and our sickness and 48-hour rule guide explains it.

Guidance from some councils What councils' home business guidance asks:

• Pets. Keep pets, their bowls and their bedding out of the kitchen while you work. One council goes further: pets out of the kitchen "at all times". No law says you cannot have pets and run a food business from home.
• Children and other people. Keep children and other family members out of the kitchen while you are making food for the business.
• Laundry. If the washing machine is in the kitchen, do not wash or sort clothes while you are making food.
• Before you start. Clear the worktops, remove plants, and clean and disinfect the surfaces you will use.
• Business food. Keep it apart from family food: its own fridge or shelf, or clearly labelled containers. One older council leaflet says you should have a separate fridge for the business.

Our advice Work in production sessions. Before each one: pets out and the door shut, washing machine off, worktops cleared and disinfected, hair tied back, jewellery off, clean apron on. After it: business food covered, labelled and back on its own shelf. Our disinfectants guide covers what to clean with.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Guidance in Scotland If raw meat, or vegetables with soil on them, are ever handled in your kitchen, the E. coli cross-contamination guidance applies to you too: the FSA's version names premises used mainly as a private house, and Food Standards Scotland has its own. It says not to use complex equipment, such as a mincer or vacuum packer, for raw and ready-to-eat food on the same day. Our advice If you cook raw meat for the family and make ready-to-eat food to sell, keep them apart in time and in space, with separate boards and a full clean and disinfect between them. Our cross-contamination guide explains why.

Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Chilled food that could grow harmful bacteria must be kept at 8°C or below. Guidance in Scotland Scotland's law sets no number, and CookSafe recommends 5°C or below. Our advice A family fridge that is opened all day may run warmer than you think: check it with a thermometer. More in our fridge temperature guide.

Guidance from some councils Councils disagree most about hand washing at home. Some will accept a basin outside the kitchen, or one bowl of a double sink kept for hands. Others will not accept a basin in a toilet, and may ask for a second sink, depending on what you make. A basin in the kitchen used only for hands was accepted by every council we read. A bathroom basin or a single sink is where they disagree, and it depends on what you make, so ask your council before you change anything or spend money. More in our hand wash basins guide.

Guidance from some councils Councils also say a toilet must not open straight into the kitchen. One Scottish council asks for at least two doors between the kitchen and a toilet or bathroom.

Law in all four nations You need enough drinking-quality water. Most homes are on the mains. If yours is on a private supply, such as a well, borehole or spring, say so when you register. In England and Wales the council has to risk assess and check a private supply used for a business, and may charge for it. In Northern Ireland the Drinking Water Inspectorate looks after supplies used to make food commercially. In Scotland, ask your council.

Law in all four nations Every food business needs food safety procedures based on HACCP principles, with documents and records that fit the nature and size of the business, and must show them in the way the council asks. How much you write down depends on what you make and how much of it. Guidance from some councils The councils we read expect something written, even from a small home baker.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA's free pack for caterers, Safer Food, Better Business, suits a home caterer. There is also a version for retailers. Our free food safety plan builder is based on the pack for caterers and is built for small restaurants, cafes, pubs and takeaways, so a home caterer may find it useful, and a home baker may find it more than they need.
• Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering, from the FSA in Northern Ireland.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe, from Food Standards Scotland, or RetailSafe for selling food you have not made.
• Guidance from some councils Many councils publish a shorter home baker pack. One Welsh council's pack says it may not suit higher-risk catering or bigger businesses, and should be reviewed every year or when you add a new product.

Which pack fits each nation, and what goes in it, is in our food safety management system guide. Whichever you use, add the parts that only a home kitchen has:

• how you keep pets, children and other people out of the kitchen while you work;
• when the washing machine is used, if it is in the kitchen;
• where business food is kept, and how it is kept apart from family food;
• which basin or sink is used for hand washing;
• how you clean and disinfect before each session;
• how you give allergen information for each way you sell;
• what you record on the days you make food.

This is a list of what to cover in your own plan. It is not a form to fill in.

The same cake can need a full label, a short label or no label at all, depending on how it reaches the customer. These are the usual routes for a home business. The rules below apply in all four nations.

Guidance GOV.UK and Food Standards Scotland both describe these rules. The PPDS rules started on 1 October 2021 in all four nations. Full details, an example label and the online rules are in our Natasha's Law and PPDS guide, and the 14 allergens and food sold loose are in our allergen matrix guide.

Guidance GOV.UK says a small business with fewer than 10 staff and a turnover under £1.4 million does not need a nutrition table on prepacked food it supplies direct to customers or to local shops.

Our advice Keep every recipe, and the labels of the ingredients you used, for each product. When a customer asks "is there nut in this?", the answer comes from those, not from memory. Change a recipe or a supplier, and check the label and your allergen information the same day. A use-by date on what you make is yours to set: see our guide to how long food you make keeps.

Law in all four nations Anyone handling food must be supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene to fit the work they do. No law asks for a certificate or names a level.

Guidance from some councils Councils recommend a Level 2 food hygiene course for anyone selling food from home. Many also point to the FSA's free online allergen training.

Our advice Do a Level 2 course before you start and keep the certificate with your plan. It is the easiest way to show the officer you are trained. More in our food hygiene certificate guide.

Guidance from some councils A Welsh council's home baker pack puts it simply: "A few documented records will need to be kept on the days you bake". For most home businesses that means, on each day you make food:

• your fridge temperature;
• cooking temperatures for high-risk food, such as meat, and cooling times if you cook ahead;
• a note that you cleaned and disinfected before you started;
• anything that went wrong and what you did about it.

Law in all four nations You must be able to say who supplied your food and ingredients, so keep receipts or a supplier list. If you sell only to the public, you do not need a record of who bought from you. If you supply another business, such as a cafe or a shop, you must also be able to say which businesses you supplied, with what and when. More in our food safety records guide.

Our advice If business food sits in the fridge between the days you make food, check that fridge on those days too. On a day you do not trade, write "Closed" across the page, or keep a list of the days you make food. Never fill in a day afterwards that you did not check. Our food safety diary guide covers missed and closed days.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland GOV.UK says that for a business run from home, officers arrange a visit to check your food preparation areas and your procedures, and that the first visit may be several months away.

Law in all four nations The law says an officer must give 24 hours' notice before insisting on entry to premises used only as a private home. A home that is also a food business may not count as "only" a home, so do not rely on it.

Guidance from some councils A Scottish council's pack says the officer agrees a time with you first, and will want to see your written records as well as the kitchen itself.

You can trade while you wait for the first visit. What happens on the day, and the result, are in our first food hygiene inspection guide. What officers score is in our EHO inspection guide.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland A home business is rated from 0 to 5, like any other. For a business registered at a home address, the ratings website shows just the first half of your postcode, unless you agree in writing to show the full address. Childminders, and others who look after people in their own home, are inspected but not given a rating.

Showing your rating:

• England: showing your sticker is up to you. The FSA encourages businesses to show their rating, including online.
• Wales: the law says you must display your sticker at or near each customer entrance. If customers never come in, it goes in a place where customers can easily read it, and a North Wales council pack says a home caterer can put it where customers collect, such as a hallway or porch. If you sell at a market, the law asks you to show your rating at your stall too. If you take orders for delivery or collection and hand out a printed menu or leaflet with prices, it must carry a statement about your rating.
• Northern Ireland: the law says you must display your sticker at or near each customer entrance, and tell customers your rating if they ask. Northern Ireland has consulted on making businesses show their rating online too, but that is not law.
• Scotland: the scheme is different: your result is Pass or Improvement Required. Food Standards Scotland gives you a certificate or sticker to display, but its guidance does not say you must. Ask your council how it shows a business at a home address.

Law in all four nations A business that makes food from meat, fish, eggs or dairy and supplies it to other businesses can need approval from the council instead of registration. Approval comes after the council checks the premises, and you cannot start that supply until you have it. Selling straight to the public does not need approval.

Law in all four nations Two exceptions often cover a home business. Food that combines plant ingredients with animal products that have already been processed, such as a no-bake cheesecake made with bought cream cheese, is normally outside the approval rules. Food made with raw meat, such as sausage rolls or pies, is not covered by that exception, so supplying it to cafes or shops can need approval. The second exception covers both: a retailer's supply to other businesses that is "marginal, localised and restricted" stays outside the approval rules. Guidance from some councils Councils give "marginal" and "localised" their own working meanings, usually a small share of what you make and a short distance from home, so ask yours what they mean for you.

Our advice Before you supply a cafe or shop with anything made with meat, fish, raw egg or dairy, such as sausage rolls, quiches or cheesecakes, ask your council whether you need approval.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Raw drinking milk can only be sold by registered farms and a few other set routes, so it cannot be sold from a home kitchen. Guidance in Scotland Selling raw drinking milk and raw cream is banned in Scotland.

Our advice Take extra care with high-risk food, and tell the council exactly what you will make when you register:

• for desserts with raw or lightly cooked egg, such as mousses, use pasteurised egg, above all for people who are more vulnerable (our eggs guide covers this);
• do not vacuum pack food, preserve it in oil, can or bottle low-acid food, or cure meat or fish without talking to your council first;
• making food for care homes, nurseries or other vulnerable people raises what your council will expect;
• dog treats are animal feed, not food, and have their own registration, usually with the council's trading standards team (in Northern Ireland, ask the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs). Treats made with meat or fish have extra rules from the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland In England, a childminder registered with Ofsted or a childminder agency does not register separately as a food business. Wales and Northern Ireland are different, so ask your council. The FSA has a free Safer Food, Better Business pack for childminders.

Guidance in Scotland Food Standards Scotland says a childminder may need to register as a food business, depending on the food they give children, while GOV.UK says childminders in Scotland register on a childminders' form. Ask your council's environmental health service.

Food law is only part of it. GOV.UK says a business run from home may need other permissions. In short:

• Your mortgage lender, landlord or freeholder. Check your mortgage, tenancy or lease, and ask before you start: you may need their permission. Older property deeds can contain covenants that stop some business uses, and a solicitor can check them.
• Home insurance. It may not cover business stock, equipment or customers coming to your home. Ask your insurer, and ask whether a claim from a customer who falls ill is covered. Public and product liability insurance is not compulsory, but many markets, venues and shops ask you to have it.
• Employers' liability insurance. In all four nations it is a legal duty as soon as you employ someone, with cover of at least £5 million. It is not needed if the only people you employ are close family.
• Planning. A small home business does not usually need planning permission. In England, the Planning Portal's questions come down to two things: is your home still mainly a home, and would the neighbours notice the business? If either is in doubt, ask your council's planning team. In Wales and Scotland the test is whether the business changes the overall character of your home. In Northern Ireland, ask your council's planning office.
• Business rates. In England and Wales you do not usually pay business rates if you use a small part of your home, but you may if customers come to buy at your home, you employ people there or you alter your home for the business. The Valuation Office Agency decides. In Scotland the local assessor decides. In Northern Ireland homes pay domestic rates, and Land and Property Services values the business part of a home separately.
• Tax. HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) trading allowance covers the first £1,000 a year of takings before costs. Above that, register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of the tax year. Takings means sales, not profit. The government has announced that the allowance will rise to £3,000 from 6 April 2027, once the law is passed. Check your own case with HMRC or an accountant.
• Selling online or by phone. Before an order, tell customers your name or trading name, the address where your business is based and how to contact you. A website must show your name, address and email address. We found no exception for a business run from home. The 14-day right to cancel does not cover food that spoils quickly, or food made to the customer's order, such as a named celebration cake.

This is a short list to start from. It is not legal, tax or insurance advice: your council, HMRC and your insurer decide how the rules apply to you. GOV.UK's running a business from home page is the place to begin.

The duty to register, the rules for a home kitchen, training, allergen information and labels, tracing food and approval are the same law in all four nations. These are the differences:

• Labels on posted brownies, but no allergen information before the order. Online and phone sales need allergen information before the customer orders, not only on the box.
• "Cakes are low risk." Fresh cream cakes, cheesecake and many cream cheese icings need keeping chilled. Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland They must be kept at 8°C or below. On display, for example at a market, the law allows one period above 8°C of less than four hours. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe recommends 5°C or below.
• Delivering chilled food without a cool box. Chilled food has to stay cold all the way to the customer. Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The 8°C limit applies in your own car too, and food sent by post or courier must not arrive at a temperature that could put health at risk. Our advice Use a cool box with ice packs.
• No receipts for ingredients. You must be able to say where your ingredients came from. Keep supermarket receipts: they show where each ingredient came from.
• Supplying a cafe with no label and no allergen information. The cafe cannot answer its customers' questions without it (section 7).
• Reheating to less than 82°C in Scotland. Law in Scotland Food reheated to serve hot must reach at least 82°C, unless that would spoil it. See our reheating guide.
• Treating "less than once a month" as a promise. It comes from guidance about community events. Only your council can tell you that you do not need to register.

Paper works well for a home business: your pack's diary, or a notebook kept for the business, on the days you make food. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for daily records, built for professional kitchens. Some of it fits a one-person business at home:

• Temperatures: cooking, cooling, hot-holding, reheating and delivery temperatures, each checked against a limit, with the name of whoever took it.
• Checklists: opening and closing starter checklists you can change. They start with two fridges and a freezer, so change the lines to your own fridge, or the business shelf in the family fridge. Set each checklist's days open, so a business that makes food on Fridays and Saturdays is not asked about the rest of the week.
• The day sign-off: a Manager or Supervisor signs off each day the next day. If you work alone, you are the Manager. Days with no records do not come up for signing.
• Incidents: a problem with a photo, what you did and who checked it. A missing or wrong label can be logged as a Food incident, type "Label Missing or Wrong", and a wrong allergen answer as "Allergen Risk".
• Stock: what you have, with use-by dates.
• The Inspection Pack: a PDF of your records for the dates you choose, to show the officer.

What it does not do today: it does not register you or tell you whether you need to, it does not hold your food safety plan or a council pack, it makes no labels and has no allergen matrix, it does not record which businesses you supplied, and it does not deal with planning, insurance, rates or tax. There is no starter checklist for a business run from home: its starters are built for restaurant kitchens, so you change the lines to fit yours.

Which plan. The 14-day free trial opens checklists, stock, the day sign-off, reports and the Inspection Pack. Training and certificate records are part of Pro and are not in the trial. After the trial, cooking, cooling, hot-holding, reheating and delivery temperatures, and up to 20 incidents and near misses (not delivery problems), stay free for one login, the kitchen's billing Manager. Fridge and freezer checks are on checklists, so they need Standard or Pro, as do stock, reports and the Inspection Pack. ChefsRecords is on iPhone only.

Get ChefsRecords on the App Store (iPhone) ›
14 days free. No card required.

Related guides

The register a food business guide, the first food hygiene inspection guide, the new kitchen starter kit, the hand wash basins guide, the Natasha's Law and PPDS guide, the allergen matrix guide, the food safety management system guide, the food hygiene certificate guide and the food safety records guide.