New kitchen food safety starter kit: before your first inspection

New owners often mix these up. They are two different things, and an inspector looks at both.

• Your food safety plan is written once and kept up to date. It says how you keep food safe in your kitchen: how you cook, cool, store and reheat food, how you clean, how you stop cross-contamination, how you handle allergens, and what you do when something goes wrong. In England and Wales many small kitchens write it with the Food Standards Agency's free food safety pack (we call it the FSA pack). Northern Ireland has Safe Catering and Scotland has CookSafe.
• Your records are kept every day. They show that you do what your plan says: fridge and freezer temperatures, cooking and cooling temperatures, cleaning, deliveries, and any problem with what you did about it.

Law in all four nations Article 5 of Regulation 852/2004 asks for food safety procedures based on the principles of HACCP, and for documents and records that fit "the nature and size of the food business". Guidance GOV.UK describes a food safety management system as "a written set of processes, checks, rules and records".

Our advice A plan with no records looks like paperwork that sits on a shelf. Records with no plan do not show what you are checking against. You need both. More in our food safety management system guide and our food safety records guide.

Law in all four nations Register your food business with your local council at least 28 days before you start trading. Registration is free. If you are already trading, register now. Your council uses the registration to plan your first inspection.

A few businesses that make meat, fish, egg or dairy products to supply other businesses need approval from the council instead of registration. Ask your council if that might be you.

Register on GOV.UK: Register a food business. Our first food hygiene inspection guide explains what happens next.

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The officer looks at three things: how hygienically food is handled, the condition of your premises (cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation, pest control), and how you manage food safety, including your processes, training and systems. Visits are usually not announced.

Scotland Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, with a result of Pass or Improvement Required instead of a 0 to 5 rating.

Law in Wales and Northern Ireland You must display your rating sticker where customers can see it (in Northern Ireland, at or near each customer entrance). In England showing it is voluntary.

• Your first food hygiene inspection: registering, when the first visit comes, whether you can trade before it, and what to have ready when you have just started.
• Food hygiene inspection: a checklist to get ready (PDF): one A4 page of things to check before an inspection, from your plan and records to allergens, deliveries and the day of the visit. It is our own list, not an FSA or council document.
• EHO inspection guide: what happens on the day and how the rating works.

Law in all four nations No law names a pack. You can use your nation's free pack, or write your own plan based on HACCP. Your council's food safety team judges whether it works for what you do.

• Our tool, England and Wales Our free food safety plan builder is for small restaurants, cafes, pubs and takeaways in England and Wales. It is built from the FSA pack but is not an FSA tool, and your answers stay on your device.
• Guidance in Northern Ireland Use Safe Catering, from the FSA in Northern Ireland.
• Guidance in Scotland Use CookSafe, from Food Standards Scotland.
• Our food safety management system guide explains what the plan covers, nation by nation.

Our advice Write it in your own words, about your own kitchen and menu. A copied plan that does not match what you cook is easy for an officer to spot.

Your plan says which checks you will do. These guides explain what each record is for, how often to make it and what it needs to show. Your nation's pack has its own record pages, or you can keep the records in a notebook or an app.

• Opening and closing checks: the short list you work through at the start and end of each day. Opening and closing checks guide.
• Fridge and freezer temperatures: a reading for each fridge and freezer, with what you did if one was too warm. Fridge temperature log guide.
• The food safety diary: the daily sign-off and the 4-weekly review used in England and Wales, and what Scotland and Northern Ireland use instead. Food safety diary guide.
• Cleaning: what to clean, how often, and how to show it was done. Kitchen cleaning schedule guide.
• Deliveries: chilled and frozen temperatures, dates, packaging, when to reject a delivery and what to write down. Food delivery checks guide.

Law in all four nations Staff who handle food must be supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene to suit the work they do. No law says they must hold a certificate, but a training record for each person is the easiest way to show it. Staff must also know when to stay off work if they are ill - see the sickness section of our inspection checklist (PDF).

Our advice Write down problems as well as passes. A record that shows a warm fridge and what you did about it is worth more to an officer than a page of perfect numbers.

Your temperature records are only as good as your probe thermometer. Check it before you rely on it, and put the main temperatures on the wall where staff can see them.

• How to check a food probe (PDF): an A4 card for beside the sink. Our probe check guide explains it.
• UK food temperatures wall chart (PDF): one A4 page for the kitchen wall.
• Cooking temperatures guide: the core temperature of cooked food.
• Cooling food guide: what the law says on cooling in each nation, fast methods and what to record.
• Hot holding temperature guide: the law in each nation, and why Scotland is different.

Law in all four nations If any food you sell contains one of the 14 allergens named in food law, you must be able to tell customers. GOV.UK: "If you sell food loose, you must provide allergen information."

Guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland You can give the information in writing or verbally. If you give it verbally, put up a written notice where customers can clearly see it saying how to get it. The FSA says written information, backed up by a conversation, works best.

Law in all four nations If you wrap or box food on your premises before the customer orders it (for example sandwiches, salads or cakes in a grab-and-go fridge), each pack needs a label with the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the allergens emphasised. This is often called Natasha's Law.

Law in all four nations Food businesses must make sure staff are trained on allergens.

• Allergen matrix guide: how to fill in a matrix for the 14 allergens and keep it up to date when a recipe or supplier changes.
• Allergen matrix template (PDF, A4 landscape, two pages): colour or black and white.

Our advice No law requires a matrix. It is one simple way to keep allergen information in writing for every dish, including specials, sauces, dressings and frying oil. Fill it in from the labels of the products you actually buy, not from memory. Check it again whenever a supplier swaps a product.

When the officer asks for something, you want to find it in seconds.

• The kitchen folder map (PDF): one A4 page with an eleven-section order for your food safety folder, and where the FSA pack, Safe Catering and CookSafe keep each record.
• Sink signs (PDF): Hand washing only, Food washing only and Equipment washing only. Print only the ones that are true for your kitchen. More in our hand wash basins guide.
• Chopping board colours wall chart (PDF), or the version with purple for allergy orders. More in our chopping board colours guide.
• The 4 Cs of food hygiene staff poster (PDF): for England, Wales and Northern Ireland or Scotland. More in our 4Cs of food hygiene guide.

All our free printables are on the free tools page.

Paper works, and so does your nation's pack kept on a device. ChefsRecords is an iPhone app for the daily records:

• Daily checks: starter checklists for opening, closing, weekly and a monthly review, which you change to fit your kitchen.
• Temperatures: cooking, cooling, hot-holding, reheating and delivery temperatures. A reading outside your limit is flagged as you enter it, and the app asks what was done about it.
• Incidents: problems and near misses, with what was done about them.
• Who and when: each record is saved under the name of the person signed in, with the date and time it was entered.
• The Inspection Pack: your temperature records, checklists and incidents for any dates in one PDF, newest first, to show an officer.

What it does not do today: your written food safety plan and allergen matrix are not in the app, and it does not help you register. Keep those on paper or in your own files.

Which plan. The 14-day free trial opens checklists, 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 reports and the Inspection Pack.

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