Food vans and market stalls: food safety rules for UK traders

Most of the cost of a food van goes on the van, the kit and the fit-out. Most of the food safety problems we hear about come from buying first and asking the council afterwards. This order avoids that.

1. Talk to the council before you buy. Ring or email the food team at the council where the van or stall will be kept. Ask what it expects for hand washing, drinking water and keeping food cold on a unit like yours, and keep the reply. Section 2 explains which council that is.
2. Register at least 28 days before you trade, as the FSA and Food Standards Scotland ask. It costs nothing and is not a licence. Our guide to registering a food business covers where and how in each nation.
3. Write your food safety plan. Each nation has a free pack: the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack (the FSA pack) in England and Wales, Safe Catering in Northern Ireland, CookSafe in Scotland. None has a section written for vans, so add your own (section 16). See our food safety management system guide.
4. Train yourself and anyone who helps. No law requires a Level 2 certificate: the law asks for training that fits the work each person does. Many councils and event organisers still ask to see a Level 2 food hygiene certificate. Family and friends helping for a weekend need the same short briefing as staff: hand washing, allergens, and not working while unwell. See our food hygiene certificate guide.
5. Fit out for water, hand washing and cold storage, to what the council told you (sections 6 to 8), and buy a probe thermometer.
6. Sort out where you are allowed to trade. A street trading licence or consent from the council, a pitch from a market operator, or the landowner's or organiser's permission, and sometimes more than one of these (section 14).
7. Gas and electrics checked by the right engineer, and the certificates kept in the van (section 15).
8. Insurance. Insurance is outside this guide, but plan for it. Your van must be insured to be driven on the road; ask your insurer whether the policy covers catering use. If you employ staff, employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement in most cases (see GOV.UK). Organisers usually ask for public liability insurance as a condition of a pitch.
9. Before each event, send the organiser what they ask for, by their deadline (section 12).

You can usually trade before your first inspection, as long as you have registered. Some events will not book a trader still waiting for a rating. Our first inspection guide covers what happens on the day.

Law in all four nations Every food business has to register with the council, and that includes vans, trailers and stalls.

Councils ask a van or stall to register once, where it is kept, not again in every place it trades.

• Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The FSA's page on food businesses "on the move" says to register where your food is stored overnight. Councils word it as where the van or stall is kept, or goes back to between trading days, such as a yard, a lock-up or the drive at home.
• Guidance in Scotland Scotland's national standard for mobile traders says to notify the council where the unit is "normally based (even when not trading)". Some Scottish councils also ask units that trade in their area regularly to register with them, so ask both.
• A kitchen at home or elsewhere as well. If you prepare or store food somewhere else for the van, such as a kitchen at home, a unit or a hired kitchen, that place may need registering too, with its own council. That council may be different from the van's. The hygiene law expressly covers homes used regularly to prepare food for sale.
• Food at home, van in a yard. If your stock lives at home and the van sleeps in a yard in another council's area, ask both councils which one registers the van. Usually it is where the van is kept.
• Several vans or stalls. Each unit kept at the same base can usually go on one registration; ask the council how it wants them listed.
• No fixed base. If the van moves around and has nowhere it goes back to, ask the council where you live.

Keep the council's details up to date. If you move the van's base to another council area, tell both councils: the new one registers you and, in time, takes over your rating.

A van that trades across ten council areas does not get ten ratings. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland:

• The council you registered with gives your rating, publishes it, and deals with appeals, the right to reply and re-rating visits.
• Any council where you trade can inspect you. At a market, show or festival, officers from that council may come to the van. They send a copy of their report to your home council, which has to take it into account. A poor visit at an event can bring down the rating you get at home.
• The rating can move. If you trade only, or mostly, in another council's area, the two councils can agree in writing that the one where you trade looks after your rating.
• Your address. For mobile traders and caterers working from home, the ratings website can show the business with only the council name and part of the postcode, so your home address is not published in full. Ask your council.
• Stalls at occasional markets are rated where the council finds it practical. A stall that trades for a few days a year at short notice may not be.

In Scotland, the council where the unit is based inspects it and publishes your Food Hygiene Information Scheme result: Pass or Improvement Required. A Scottish unit trading in England is still looked after by its Scottish council; English councils that inspect it contact that council.

How a rating is worked out, appeals and re-rating are in our EHO inspection guide.

Wales's guidance for councils gives examples: on a van customers cannot step into, a window or somewhere else on the vehicle; on a stall, on the stand or table, or in a frame on the table. In Wales the display duty applies once the 21-day appeal period has passed, or the appeal is decided.

Our advice If your van or stall is registered in Wales or Northern Ireland, keep the sticker on show wherever you trade. If you are registered in England and trade in Wales, ask the Welsh council whether it expects anything from you.

In December 2024 Vale of Glamorgan Council reported the prosecution of a food truck operator rated 0. The council's findings included never displaying the rating, which is a legal requirement in Wales, no hand soap, no documented food safety management system and ready-to-eat food at up to 19.6°C. The operator was fined £334 with £2,283.75 costs, and the company was fined £50.

Law in all four nations Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter III covers "movable and/or temporary premises (such as marquees, market stalls, mobile sales vehicles)". So far as is reasonably practicable, the unit must be sited, designed, built, kept clean and kept in good repair so it avoids contamination, especially from animals and pests. Where necessary, it must have:

Our advice Outdoors, pests means wasps, flies, birds and dogs as well as mice. Cover food on display, use a gazebo with sides on a windy or wasp-heavy day, and keep dogs at a market away from the food and the prep area. Some councils give a height for food off the ground, such as 45 centimetres; that is a council figure, not law.

Law in all four nations The rest of the hygiene law applies as it does in any kitchen: drinking-quality water and ice, clean and suitable clothing, staff who are unwell with sickness or diarrhoea kept away from food, training that fits the work, and a written food safety system based on HACCP principles. See our kitchen hygiene rules guide and our sickness and return to work guide.

Some pages still quote the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006. In England those were replaced by the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 from 31 December 2013. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland still use their own 2006 Regulations.

Law in all four nations There must be an adequate supply of drinking-quality (potable) water, used wherever it is needed to stop food being contaminated. Ice that touches food or drinks must be made from drinking-quality water and kept clean.

On a van that usually means water you carry in, from a mains drinking water tap. No law sets how much. One council's older guide suggests at least 25 litres on the unit for hands, equipment and food, but a busy van on a long day can use far more. Work it out from your own day.

Guidance in Scotland Scotland's national standard for mobile traders asks for water containers you can tell apart from waste water containers at a glance and that are kept for water only, holding enough for your trading hours, made of food grade material with a closed top, and easy to clean and disinfect. Guidance from some councils Councils and trade guides elsewhere ask for much the same.

Our advice For fresh water:

• keep fresh and waste water containers different in colour or shape, and mark the fresh ones "drinking water", so nobody ever picks up the wrong one;
• buy containers made for drinking water, with a sealing lid; a solid colour you cannot see through stops algae growing in summer;
• fill them at a mains drinking water tap, through a hose made for drinking water; a garden hose is not;
• clean and disinfect them before first use and then on a routine your plan sets, and leave them empty and open to dry between trading days;
• at an event, ask the organiser where the drinking water point is before you arrive; the duty to use drinking water stays with you, so ask where the organiser's water comes from, fill with your own drinking water hose, and run the tap before you fill.

Waste water goes into its own sealed container, never onto the ground, the pitch or a street drain. Guidance in Scotland The national standard rules out surface water drains, and asks for waste water to go to proper drainage after every trading day. Everywhere, ask the organiser or market operator where waste water may be emptied.

Ice: buy bagged ice made for food, or make it from drinking water. Ice used to chill cans or cool boxes is not ice for drinks; keep the two apart. Use a scoop, never a glass or your hands, and keep the scoop out of the ice between uses.

Law in all four nations Where necessary, appropriate facilities for washing and drying hands hygienically. The law does not say what those facilities are on a van, so councils decide, and they do not agree:

Whatever the set-up: liquid soap, paper towels, a bin for them, warm water for the whole session, and a basin used only for hands. A washing-up sink or bowl is not a hand basin.

Our advice Fit a basin with warm running water if you handle open high-risk food, such as cooked meat, rice, dairy or anything that is not cooked again. It is the set-up no council or guide we found refuses. Ask the council where the van is kept before you buy anything cheaper, and keep its answer: an event in another council's area may expect more. Council by council quotes are in our hand wash basins guide.

Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Food that needs chilling must be kept at 8°C or below. The van is food premises, so this applies on board as much as in a kitchen. There are defences for:

• food kept for service or on display for sale for less than four hours, once only, that had not been kept that way above 8°C before;
• moving food between chilled premises and a food business vehicle, either way, for a limited period consistent with food safety;
• unavoidable reasons, such as a breakdown, for a limited period consistent with food safety.

These are defences you may have to prove with a record, not four extra hours. Food stored on the van for the day, rather than out for service, is not covered by the four-hour defence, and the moving defence covers loading and unloading, not the whole day. Food stored on the van needs to stay at 8°C or below. See our fridge temperature guide and danger zone guide.

Law in Scotland Food has to be kept in a fridge, a refrigerated chamber or a cool ventilated place, or above 63°C. The law gives no number. It does not cover food being prepared, on display for sale or kept out so it is handy for sale, and there is no four-hour defence. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe gives 8°C or below, and recommends 5°C or below, and Scotland's national standard asks for suitable temperature-controlled storage and a way to check it. Our advice Keep chilled food out on display for as short a time as you can, and probe it.

Fridges, cool boxes and freezer blocks

• A fridge on the van, run from a generator, batteries or a hook-up, is what most councils expect for high-risk food over a full trading day. Plan what happens when the power stops: how long the fridge holds, and what you move or throw away.
• Cool boxes divide councils. Guidance from some councils Some accept commercial cool boxes with enough freezer or eutectic blocks, some only for a one-day event, and Havering calls them "only useful in extending the time perishable foods can be used in the trading day", with what is left binned at the close. Older national guidance for officers (2010) says it is up to the trader to show the cool box works, with temperature readings.

Our advice If you use cool boxes:

• chill the food in a fridge first; a cool box keeps food cold, it does not make it cold;
• pack them with plenty of frozen blocks, keep the lid shut, keep them in the shade and off the ground, and use one for raw food and another for ready-to-eat food;
• probe the food, not the air, when you load, when you arrive and at the times your plan sets, and write down each reading and the time;
• if food is above 8°C and you do not know how long it has been, throw it away;
• at the end of the day, perishable food goes in the bin unless your readings show it stayed at 8°C or below the whole time and your council accepts that;
• if you trade for more than one day, or sell high-risk food all day, plan for a fridge.

Law in all four nations Vehicles and containers that carry food must be clean and in good repair, keep food protected, and where necessary keep it apart from anything that could contaminate it and keep it at the right temperature in a way you can check. Our advice If you bring food from a kitchen to the van, carry raw and ready-to-eat food in separate, closed containers, probe it when it leaves and when it arrives, and keep the journey short. The same probe check works for food from a cash and carry. Our food delivery checks guide covers chilled food in transit.

• Cooking. Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland A core of 70°C for 2 minutes, or an equal pair such as 75°C for 30 seconds. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe gives 75°C or above as its example. Burgers and sausages on a busy grill are the classic risk: probe the thickest one. See our cooking temperatures guide.
• Hot holding. Law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 63°C or above. Hot food kept for service or on display below 63°C for less than two hours is a defence, once only, and you will need the time written down to prove it. Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland GOV.UK says that after the two hours, cool it as quickly as possible to 8°C or below, or throw it away. Our advice Before the two hours are up, reheat it once until steaming hot and put it back at 63°C or above, or chill it quickly. Past two hours, throw it away: most vans cannot cool food safely. Law in Scotland Above 63°C, with some exemptions, and no two-hour defence. Guidance in Scotland CookSafe says hot-held food must be kept above 63°C. Our hot holding guide goes through the two-hour rule step by step.
• Reheating. Law in Scotland Reheated food must reach 82°C or above, unless that would spoil it. Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Steaming hot all the way through, and reheat only once. Our advice Reheat on the grill, hob or in a microwave, not in the bain-marie or hot holding unit. Food goes into the hot holding unit already steaming hot. See our reheating guide.
• Leftovers. Law in all four nations Cooked food that is to be kept cold must be cooled as quickly as possible. Our advice Cook to the demand you expect and throw away hot food left at the end of the day. Cooling it safely needs a fridge with room for shallow trays, and most vans have neither. If you do cool it, cool it as quickly as possible to 8°C or below, and reheat it only once; in Scotland, reheat to 82°C. See our cooling guide.

Our advice Carry a spare probe or spare batteries, check the probe in iced water on each trading day before service, and in boiling water when you can, and wipe it with a food-safe disinfectant wipe between foods. A failed probe at a festival leaves you guessing all day. See our probe check guide.

No law sets how often a van must probe its food or fridge. You decide in your food safety plan, and the inspector checks that you do what the plan says.

• Guidance in England and Wales The FSA pack uses opening and closing checks, a daily diary, and a 4-weekly review.
• Guidance in Northern Ireland Safe Catering has record sheets, and says to check hot food every two hours if it is on display for longer than two hours.
• Guidance in Scotland CookSafe has charts for food served away from your kitchen: check temperatures when food leaves and when it arrives, or reheat or hot hold on site, and keep its off-site temperature record.

Our advice For a trading day, a useful record has:

• fridge or cool box readings when you load and at set times during the day;
• a core temperature for each batch you cook, or a fair sample of a busy grill, focused on the higher-risk food;
• hot holding readings at the times your plan sets, and the time any food came out of hot holding under the two-hour rule;
• anything that went wrong and what you did: a fridge that failed, food thrown away, no hot water;
• who checked, and the date and place you traded.

Keep the plan and recent records with you when you trade: an inspector at an event will ask to see them, not wait for you to fetch them from home. More in our food safety records guide.

Law in all four nations For food sold loose, information about any of the 14 allergens in each item must be available to customers.

Law in all four nations You can tell customers by word of mouth, but then a notice, menu, ticket or label they can easily see must say they can ask staff about allergens.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The FSA says written allergen information, with a chat at the counter to back it up, works best for customers. Guidance in Scotland Food Standards Scotland says the information can be written up on a menu, board or label, or told to the customer by staff, as long as it is there before they buy.

Law in all four nations Food you pack before a customer orders it, and sell from your own van or stall, is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS). The FSA's guidance for mobile sellers counts food boxed or wrapped ahead of a rush and kept warm, such as chips or burgers, and meals portioned into containers before anyone orders. Each needs a label with the name of the food and the full ingredients, with the allergens emphasised. An allergen list on display does not replace the label. See our Natasha's Law guide.

Our advice At a busy hatch, a written allergen list for each dish is faster and safer than relying on memory. Free samples count as food you supply: keep them away from other food, with their own board and utensils, and know what is in them. Our allergen matrix guide has a free matrix and how to fill it in.

These are conditions an organiser can set for a pitch. They are not food law. Food law does not set a minimum rating to trade, and a registered business can trade before its first inspection. An organiser can still refuse a pitch to a trader who does not meet its conditions, and conditions vary from event to event.

Guidance from some councils Council advice to event organisers includes:

• book traders registered with their council and rated 3 or above, and do not accept traders listed as "Awaiting Inspection" (Bath and North East Somerset); NCASS, a trade association for mobile caterers, suggests 4 as a minimum for high-risk food at large events;
• gather each trader's paperwork in the weeks before the event, up to eight weeks ahead in Bath and North East Somerset's advice: registration details, rating, food safety plan or risk assessment, training certificates, allergen information, and gas and electrical certificates;
• send the council a list of traders, often 4 weeks before;
• check on the day that each trader has hand washing at the pitch and their food safety plan and monitoring records with them;
• provide drinking water for traders who do not bring their own, and somewhere to empty waste water.

Our advice Keep one folder, on paper or on your phone, with everything an organiser usually asks for, so each application takes minutes, not an evening. Ask each organiser where water, waste water and food waste go before the day.

Our advice A food inspector at a market or festival can ask to see the food safety items on this list, and organisers often ask for all of them. Keep them on board, or on a phone that works on the day:

• your written food safety plan, including the van-specific parts (section 16);
• recent temperature and check records;
• training certificates for you and anyone working with you;
• allergen information for everything on sale, and the notice telling customers to ask;
• proof of registration, and your rating sticker (on display in Wales and Northern Ireland);
• gas and electrical safety certificates;
• your street trading licence or consent, or the pitch booking; in Scotland, a copy of the street trader's licence on display;
• supplier details, such as invoices or receipts, so you can say where your food came from;
• the council's written answer on your hand washing and cold storage set-up.

This is a list to read, not a form to fill in.

Registering as a food business does not give you the right to trade on a street, and a street trading licence says nothing about food hygiene. You usually need both.

• England and Wales. Councils can make streets prohibited, licence or consent streets. In England and Wales, trading without the licence or consent your council requires is an offence. GOV.UK says you can be fined up to £1,000. Some trading is exempt, such as in some long-established markets. Ask the council for the area you want to trade in.
• London. London boroughs use their own Act, with their own rules and temporary licences, and trading without a licence is also an offence.
• Northern Ireland. Councils license street trading under the Street Trading Act (Northern Ireland) 2001. Trading without a licence is an offence, with a fine.
• Scotland. You need a street trader's licence from the council to trade in a public place, including from a vehicle or a moveable stall. For a food business, the council must refuse the licence unless a food authority certificate shows the unit meets the requirements. Scotland's national standard for mobile traders (Scottish Government, 2017) calls this a certificate of compliance, valid for 3 years under the standard; check with your council. The standard applies where a street trader's licence is needed and covers the unit's structure and facilities. A certificate does not stop another council inspecting you where you trade, and the hygiene law applies whether or not you need a licence.
• Private land. Private land is not automatically outside these rules. In England and Wales the law covers any area the public can enter without paying, which can include a car park or a forecourt. Northern Ireland and Scotland use their own tests. You will always need the landowner's or organiser's permission as well. Ask the council where you will trade whether you also need a licence or consent.

Planning permission can also apply if you trade from the same spot for a long time. Ask the council's planning team.

Gas and electrics come under health and safety law, not food hygiene law, and this guide does not cover them. They are often the first thing an event organiser asks about.

• Gas. Gas work on a van must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer; councils advise using one qualified for LPG in mobile catering. Many councils and organisers ask for a gas inspection report from the last 12 months.
• Electrics. The law asks that electrical equipment is kept safe. The Health and Safety Executive says portable appliance testing (PAT) itself is not a legal requirement, but many organisers ask for a recent test certificate.
• Generators. Follow the maker's instructions and the organiser's site rules, and keep fumes and fuel away from food and the serving hatch.

For detail, see the Health and Safety Executive's guidance, and ask your engineer what your set-up needs.

None of the three nations' packs has a section for vans, so write these into your plan in your own words:

• where food is prepared and stored, and how it gets to the van;
• how chilled food is kept cold on the van, for how long, and what you do with it at the end of the day;
• your hand washing set-up, and what the council agreed;
• where your drinking water comes from, and how containers are cleaned;
• how often you probe, and what you do when a reading is wrong;
• what you do if the power, the gas or the water fails mid-service;
• where waste water and food waste go;
• allergen information, and labels for any food you pack before it is ordered;
• who helps on the day, and how you brief them.

Our advice Keep it short and true. An inspector at an event will compare the plan with what they see at the hatch.

Paper works, and your nation's pack is free. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for the daily records. Where it fits on a van or stall:

• Temperatures. Cooking, reheating, cooling, hot holding and delivery readings, each saved with the time and the name of the person who took it. A reading outside your limit is flagged as you enter it, and the app asks what was done.
• Hot holding at the hatch. Start a hot holding record with Start timer and the app reminds you to check again every two hours, as long as notifications are on. That is the app's routine, not a legal frequency: check as often as your plan says. A reading under 63°C (in Scotland, 63°C or under) ends the hold as failed and asks what was done.
• Checks you can change. The opening and closing checklists can be edited, so you can rename the fridge lines to your own fridge or cool box, and add lines of your own, such as water containers filled from a drinking water tap. The opening starter already has "Hot running water at every sink and hand basin" and "Soap and paper towels at every hand basin".
• Problems. A fridge that fails or no hot water can be logged under Repairs (Refrigeration or Plumbing), with a photo and what was done.
• For an inspector. The Inspection Pack puts temperatures, checklists and incidents for the dates you choose into one PDF. It needs a connection to make the PDF. It shows staff names, so if an organiser asks for monitoring records, you choose what to share.

Signal. ChefsRecords works best with a phone signal or Wi-Fi. On a weak or patchy signal the current version can be slow to save. If a pitch has poor signal, keep a paper back-up for that day, and make the Inspection Pack before you set off.

What it does not do today: there is no starter checklist for food vans, stalls or events, no record for water containers unless you add your own line, and no record of food taken out of hot holding under the two-hour rule or of chilled food on display under the four-hour defence: note the time on the record or on paper. It has no fridge sensors, so every reading is taken by a person, and nowhere to keep gas or electrical certificates, licences or your rating. It is iPhone only.

Which plan. Temperature records, including hot holding, are on every plan. Checklists and the Inspection Pack come with Standard and Pro, and are open in the 14-day trial.

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Related guides

The guide to registering a food business, the first inspection guide, the hand wash basins guide, the hot holding guide, the fridge temperature guide, the cooking temperatures guide, the allergen matrix guide, the EHO inspection guide, the food safety management system guide and the starter kit.