Starting a food business

It’s very important to get things right when you’re setting up a restaurant, café or food business of any kind and the following questions can help you to work out if you’ve covered the main issues when setting up a catering business.

have you got the proper planning permissions and building regulation approvals for the premises?
have you registered your premises as a food business by completing an application to register a food business ( PDF 50K file details)form
have you checked that the design and construction of the premises meet requirements under Food Law and have you checked health and safety and fire safety requirements?
do you and your staff understand the principles of general food hygiene?
have you and your staff had food hygiene training?
have you considered the food safety problems there could be at each stage of your business?
Do you record and check them regularly to make sure they are working?

The Food Standards Agency’s booklet 'Starting Up' is designed to give advice to new catering businesses.

A booklet called 'Starting Up' is available from the Food Standards Agency by calling 0845 606 0667 or you can download it (in a choice of languages) from the Agency's publications website.Their web site Safer Food Better Business has more information or contact Sevenoaks District Council’s Food Team on:

Food Safety Team
Environmental Health
Sevenoaks District Council
Argyle Road
Sevenoaks
Kent
TN13 1GP

phone:    01732 227000
fax:        01732 742339
e mail:    environmental.health@sevenoaks.gov.uk

Sevenoaks District Council,
Council Offices,
Argyle Road,
Sevenoaks,
Kent
TN13 1HG

01732 227000