Food hygiene certificates and ratings: what UK shops need to know

If you plan to sell food from a shop, you must register with your local council at least 28 days before you open. Registration won’t cost you anything.  This article covers registration, training, hygiene ratings and the records a small food shop keeps.

It is an overview of what to think about, not a full account of the rules. For advice on your specific situation, speak to a qualified accountant, solicitor or professional adviser.

Key takeaways

• Register your food business with the local council at least 28 days before you open. It is free and the council cannot refuse it.
• Food hygiene law sets a training duty rather than naming a qualification. You must train, instruct or supervise your food handlers, and be able to show what you have done.
• Shops that supply meat, dairy or fish to other businesses may need approval rather than registration. Approval has to come through before you trade.
• Hygiene ratings run from 0 to 5 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland uses Pass or Improvement Required.
• Displaying your rating is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland. In England and Scotland it is voluntary.
• Zempler Bank is an authorised UK bank, that provides business current accounts to retail businesses including shops, market stalls and online sellers.

Do you need to register a food business to run a shop

If you sell, cook, store, handle, prepare or distribute food, you are likely to count as a food business and will need to register with your local council.

That covers more shops than owners expect. It normally applies to a bakery with a counter, a butcher, a deli, a greengrocer, and a convenience store selling only pre-packed sandwiches. It also applies if you trade from home, from a stall, from a van, or only online.

Three points catch people out:

• Register at least 28 days before you start trading. Do not register months ahead, and do not leave it until the doors open.
• Register every premises. If you trade in more than one council area, register with each council separately.
• If you sell from a van, a stall or temporary premises, you still need to register. Ask your local council which authority to use.

Registration is not a licence and there is no decision to wait for. You get an acknowledgement that the council has your details, and you can trade 28 days after you’ve submitted your form. A small number of food businesses need approval rather than registration, which is covered in the next section.

If you are already trading and have not registered, register now. Registering is a legal requirement, and councils can take enforcement action where a business has not registered. Tell the council if the business changes hands, changes name or changes what it does.

That is the general position, though whether it applies to your shop can depend on what you sell and how you sell it. Your local council can confirm where you stand.

One thing worth keeping separate: registering a food business is not the same as registering a company. Food business registration tells the council you are trading, and it applies whether you are a sole trader or a limited company. Setting up a limited company is a different step, done through Companies House, and sole traders do not have to do it. Zempler Bank is a Companies House authorised formation agent, so you can register a company and apply for a business account together.

Registration or approval: which does your shop need?

Most shops selling food to customers only need to register. A smaller group needs approval instead, and that distinction matters, because approval has to be granted before the business starts trading.

Approval usually applies to businesses that handle products of animal origin, such as meat, dairy or fish, and supply them to other businesses. A butcher who makes sausages for a local pub, or a deli that wholesales its own cured meats, may fall into this group.

Shops selling to the public do not normally need approval, as long as the food is not sold on to other businesses. Retailers, supermarkets, mobile food units and delivery vans sit in that group.

There are exemptions, and the test turns on what you make and who you sell it to. Speak to the council before you commit to a wholesale order.

Do you need a food hygiene certificate by law?

Food hygiene law requires your staff to be trained, but it does not name the certificate they should hold.

The duty sits in food hygiene law. As the food business operator, you must make sure food handlers are supervised and instructed, or trained, in food hygiene. The level has to match the work they do.

If you write your own food safety procedure, you also need training in HACCP. That is the system of working out where food could become unsafe and putting checks at those points.

A recognised course with a dated certificate is the simplest proof, which is why it has become the industry standard. Induction notes, written house rules and supervision arrangements can also form part of the evidence. Whatever you use, keep it in writing and keep it current.

What a council expects to see can depend on the food your shop handles, so it is worth checking with yours.

What are the food hygiene certificates?

Many shops take a course anyway, because a dated certificate is the simplest proof. Courses are grouped into levels, set by awarding bodies and industry guidance rather than by law. Treat the table below as normal practice rather than a legal test.

If you run the shop on your own, you are both the food handler and the supervisor, so more than one level could apply. If your shop only sells sealed pre-packed food, a lower level plus good induction may be enough. Your council can tell you what it expects for a business like yours.

Courses also come in catering and retail versions. Which one fits depends on what your shop does, so check before you book.

How do you get a food hygiene certificate, and does it expire?

There are two common routes. Some councils run their own courses for local businesses, so it is worth asking yours first. Otherwise you can book with an accredited training provider, online or in a classroom. A Level 2 course usually takes a few hours.

Costs vary by provider, by level and by whether the course is online or in person. Prices are set by the training providers, so compare a few before you book.

There is no statutory renewal period for food hygiene certificates, though awarding bodies and councils may set their own expectations. Common practice is to refresh training every three years, and some awarding bodies recommend a cycle of that kind. What an officer wants to see is that your staff knowledge is current. A dated certificate backed by refresher training is stronger than an old certificate on its own.

What is a food hygiene rating and how is it worked out?

This section covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland runs a separate scheme, set out in the next section.

A food safety officer from the council inspects your shop and gives it a rating. It runs from 0 to 5, where 0 means urgent improvement is necessary and 5 means very good.

The officer looks at three things:

• How hygienically food is handled, including preparation, cooking, cooling and storage.
• The physical condition of the shop, including cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and pest control.
• How you manage food safety, including your procedures, your training and your records.

All three count, and the scoring is weighted so a weak result in one area can hold the overall rating down. Management of food safety is where paperwork gaps tend to show up.

The rating is a snapshot of what the officer found on the day. It says nothing about the quality of your food or your service. Ratings are published on the national ratings website whether or not you display them in the shop.

Do you have to display your food hygiene rating?

It depends where you trade. The scheme and the display rules differ across the four nations, so check the row that applies to your shop.

In Wales and Northern Ireland this is a legal duty and councils can take action where a business does not display a valid rating. In England and Scotland the choice is yours, but customers can look the rating up online either way.

A new shop that has not been inspected yet appears on the ratings website as awaiting inspection rather than with a score.

What records does a small food shop need to keep?

You must put food safety procedures in place based on HACCP principles, and keep documents and records suited to the size and nature of your business. HACCP sounds heavier than it is. For a small shop it means working out where food could become unsafe, deciding what you will do about it, and writing down that you did it.

The FSA publishes a free pack, Safer food, better business for retailers, built for small retail businesses such as convenience stores and corner shops. In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland publishes RetailSafe for retailers handling unwrapped high-risk food.

Whichever system you use, the day-to-day records tend to be the same:

• Fridge, freezer and chilled display temperatures.
• Cleaning schedules, signed off as they are done.
• Checks on deliveries, including dates and condition.
• Supplier and traceability details.
• Staff training, including refreshers.
• What you did when something went wrong, such as a fridge failure.

Keep them up to date. An incomplete pack is easy for an officer to spot, and management of food safety is one of the three areas being scored.

How much you need to write down depends on the size of your business and what you do with food. Check the guidance that fits your type of shop.

Who to speak to:

Food safety rules change and they differ by nation, so use the official sources rather than a summary, including this one.

• Your local council, for registration, approval, inspection arrangements and what it expects to see for your type of shop.
• The FSA, for registration, hygiene ratings, allergen labelling and the Safer food, better business packs, covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Food Standards Scotland, for the Food Hygiene Information Scheme and RetailSafe.
• A qualified adviser, where your circumstances are unusual or you are unsure which rules apply.

Getting the money side ready for a food shop

Zempler Bank offers a UK business current account built for independent retailers, including food shops. You can apply online in minutes. Once approved you get a sort code and account number straight away, and the  card follows by post within 3-5 working days. The banking is not what holds up an opening date.

Zempler Bank considers applications from start-ups and businesses with limited trading history, and does not run credit checks on application. That matters if your shop has no track record behind it yet.

Features that tend to matter to a food shop:

• Cash deposits at UK Post Office branches, which suits bakeries, butchers, delis and greengrocers taking money over the counter without a bank nearby. Fees apply.
• A separate pot, so you can set money aside for VAT, store improvements or the next stock order.
• Cashflow tracking, which helps when trade swings with the seasons, the weather and school holidays.
• Integrated accounting with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, plus a Making Tax Digital tool, so bookkeeping and VAT stay in one place.
• Invoicing, if you also supply other shops, pubs or restaurants alongside your counter trade.
• A UK-based customer service team of real people on the phone, which matters when something goes wrong mid-trade.

Eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000. Current fees and account tiers are set out on the pricing page.

Next steps

Confirm which council covers your premises, submit your food business registration at least 28 days before you open. Then start your food safety records on day one, rather than the night before your first inspection.