Daily Due Diligence in UK Food Safety: The Complete Guide for Food Businesses

1. What is daily due diligence — and why does UK law require it?

Daily due diligence is the practice of completing structured food safety checks at defined points in the working day — opening, service, delivery, closing — and keeping a contemporaneous written record of every reading, observation and decision. It is the operational evidence that a food business is actively managing its hazards rather than simply having a plan on a shelf.

The phrase "due diligence" has a specific legal meaning in UK food law. Section 21 of the Food Safety Act 1990 provides a statutory defence to any person charged with a food safety offence, provided they can demonstrate that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. In practice, this defence is almost impossible to mount without contemporaneous records. If you are prosecuted following a foodborne illness outbreak and you cannot show an EHO a log of refrigeration temperatures, cleaning checks and staff health declarations, the defence collapses — regardless of how carefully you actually ran your kitchen.

This is not theoretical. The HSE and local authorities do prosecute food businesses following illness incidents, allergen exposures and safety failures. The businesses that emerge from those proceedings with their ratings and licences intact are almost always those with robust, complete, day-by-day records. The businesses that face fines, closure notices and in the worst cases criminal charges are disproportionately those that kept no meaningful records at all.

Beyond the legal defence, daily due diligence records serve three practical functions. First, they create a feedback loop: a temperature log that flags a fridge creeping from 4°C to 7°C over three weeks is telling you that the door seal is failing long before the fridge fails entirely and costs you a full stock loss. Second, they demonstrate food safety culture to your team — when staff know that every temperature is being recorded and compared, compliance improves. Third, they are the primary document an EHO reviews during a food hygiene inspection, and a complete, well-maintained log is the single fastest route to a rating of 5.

"Your records are not bureaucracy. They are the proof that you are a safe food business."

2. What records does food law actually require?

Food businesses in the UK operate under a layered legislative framework. Understanding which piece of law requires what is the first step to building a records system that actually satisfies an inspection rather than just looking busy.

The Food Safety Act 1990

The foundational statute for food safety in Great Britain. It creates the criminal offences — selling food that is unsafe, injurious to health, or not of the nature, substance or quality demanded — and, crucially, Section 21 provides the due diligence defence. The Act does not itself specify which records to keep, but any business that wants to rely on Section 21 must be able to demonstrate the system of precautions it operated. In practice, EHOs and courts look for temperature logs, cleaning records, staff training evidence and allergen management documentation as the substance of that defence.

Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013

These regulations implement the EU food hygiene package in English law (equivalent instruments apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). They set specific temperature requirements — including the legal minimum of 8°C for chilled food and 63°C for hot-held food — and they require food business operators to implement food safety management procedures based on the HACCP principles. Importantly, they require that those procedures are documented, implemented, maintained and reviewed. "Maintained" is the word that creates the daily records obligation: a HACCP plan filed in a drawer and never updated is not being maintained.

Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 — retained in UK law

Post-Brexit, this regulation continues to apply in Great Britain as retained EU law (now UK assimilated law). Article 5 is the key provision: it requires every food business operator to put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles. Article 5(4) specifically requires that food business operators keep documents and records appropriate to the nature and size of the food business to demonstrate the effective application of those procedures. This is the direct legislative basis for keeping daily records — it is not discretionary, and it is not only for large food businesses.

The Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack

Published by the Food Standards Agency and available free at food.gov.uk, the Safer Food Better Business pack is a practical food safety management system designed for small catering and retail businesses. It contains ready-made templates for a daily diary (opening and closing checks), cleaning schedules, probe calibration logs and supplier information. Completing the SFBB daily diary satisfies the due diligence records obligation under 852/2004 for most small food businesses, and EHOs widely accept it as evidence of compliance. If you are a small food business with no existing system, starting with SFBB is the pragmatic route.

What records are expected in practice?

An EHO visiting a typical UK food business will expect to find evidence of:

• Daily temperature records — refrigeration units (at least once daily), freezers (at least once daily), cooking and reheating temperatures (probe records), and hot-hold temperatures for service.
• Opening and closing checks — equipment condition, staff health status, allergen controls, cleaning schedule completion.
• Delivery checks — supplier, product, temperature on arrival, condition, acceptance or rejection.
• Cleaning schedule — what was cleaned, by whom, when, and confirmation it was done.
• Corrective actions — a record of every failure found during monitoring, what was done about it, and what was done to prevent recurrence.
• Staff training records — evidence that everyone handling food has received appropriate food hygiene training.
• Allergen management documentation — recipe-level allergen matrices and evidence of allergen controls in daily practice.

3. What EHOs actually look for during a food hygiene inspection

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) operates across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. EHOs score food businesses against three equal-weighted categories, each worth up to 25 marks (lower is better under the scoring matrix), with the final rating on the 0–5 scale derived from the combination.

• Hygienic food handling — how food is cooked, cooled, cross-contamination prevention, personal hygiene.
• Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building — the physical state of the premises, equipment, pest control.
• Management of food safety — this is the records and systems category. It covers your HACCP documentation, staff training records, allergen controls, supplier information, temperature logs, cleaning schedule records and corrective action records.

The critical insight for most food businesses is this: you can have a genuinely clean kitchen and good food handling practices and still receive a rating of 2 or 3 if your management category scores poorly. EHOs have reported that the single most common reason for a lower-than-expected rating is the absence of contemporaneous records in the management category.

What the EHO specifically looks at in your records

Inspection detail

When an EHO sits down with your due diligence folder or digital system, they are checking for:

• Consistency — are there records for every day you were open, including weekends and bank holidays? Gaps are red flags.
• Contemporaneity — do the records look like they were filled in at the time? Entries that are all written in the same pen with identical handwriting across a week suggest they were completed in one sitting.
• Plausibility — are the temperatures realistic? A fridge that reads exactly 4°C every single day for three months is suspicious. Real fridges fluctuate. A probe that always reads exactly 76.0°C for every piece of cooked chicken is equally suspicious.
• Corrective actions — if a check ever failed, is there a record of what was done? The absence of any corrective actions over many months suggests either that nothing was ever wrong (implausible) or that failures were not being recorded (concerning).
• Staff signatures — were the checks signed off by the person who performed them? Unsigned records provide no accountability trail.
• Completeness — are all the checks that your HACCP plan requires actually being recorded? A HACCP plan that lists allergen segregation as a CCP but has no daily record of allergen checks is a contradiction that an EHO will notice.

The re-inspection right

If a food business in England and Wales receives a rating of 0, 1 or 2 it has a right to request a re-inspection once the issues identified have been addressed. Many businesses go from a 2 to a 5 within a few months, and the management records category is almost always the quickest to fix — it requires process change rather than capital expenditure. A new cleaning schedule template, a consistent fridge log and a corrective action register can transform a management score in a matter of weeks.

4. Temperature monitoring: the thresholds that matter

Temperature control is the single most important food safety control in most food businesses. Bacteria that cause foodborne illness — Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus — multiply rapidly in the danger zone between 8°C and 63°C. Every temperature threshold in UK food law exists to keep food either cold enough or hot enough to prevent bacterial growth to dangerous levels.

Understanding the rationale behind each threshold makes them much easier to apply consistently. Here are the key thresholds in the order most relevant to daily monitoring.

Check point	Legal / guidance threshold	Source	Practical note
Fridge / chilled storage	≤8°C legal max; ≤5°C best practice	Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regs 2013, FSA guidance	Set fridge to 3–4°C to allow headroom for door openings. Monitor daily at opening minimum.
Freezer / frozen storage	≤−18°C	Industry standard / FSA guidance	Any reading above −15°C should trigger a check on stock condition and a corrective action record.
Cooking (core temperature)	≥75°C	Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regs 2013	Probe the thickest part of the food. Poultry, pork, minced meat and reheated food must all reach 75°C. Record every probe reading.
Hot holding (service)	≥63°C	Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regs 2013	Probe at start of service and at least every 2 hours. Food below 63°C must be reheated to 75°C or discarded.
Cooling (hot food to chilled)	From 63°C to below 5°C within 90 minutes ideally; must not remain in danger zone (8°C–63°C) for more than 2 hours in total	FSA guidance / HACCP best practice	Blast chilling is best practice. Shallow containers and ice baths accelerate cooling. Record time and temperature at start and end of cooling.
Delivery (chilled goods)	≤8°C on arrival; reject if above	Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regs 2013	Own target ≤5°C for high-risk items. Probe or check display thermometer. Record result and supplier name.
Delivery (frozen goods)	Frozen solid on delivery; no thawing evident	FSA guidance	Check packaging integrity and ice crystal condition. Any partial thaw = rejection and corrective action record.
Reheating	≥75°C core temperature (82°C in Scotland)	Food Safety & Hygiene (Scotland) Regs 2006 (Scotland); England Regs 2013	Food must only be reheated once. Probe and record every batch. Never reheat to below 75°C and hold — reheat fully or discard.

Probe calibration and probe hygiene

A temperature reading is only as good as the probe taking it. Calibrate probes at least monthly using the ice-water method (0°C ± 1°C in ice water) and the boiling-water method (100°C ± 1°C at sea level, adjusted for altitude). Record calibration checks in your monitoring log. Between uses, wipe probes with a probe wipe or sanitise with food-safe sanitiser — a cross-contamination incident caused by an unsanitised probe is a significant food safety failure and will be identified during an EHO inspection.

Many EHOs will ask to see your probe during the inspection and will check that it reads accurately. A probe that reads 3°C in ice water is still usable — note the offset and apply it. A probe that reads 12°C in ice water is faulty and must be replaced before any more temperature readings are taken.

5. Opening checks: what to do and record before service begins

Opening checks are the first line of food safety defence each day. They establish the baseline condition of the premises, equipment and food stock before anything is cooked, served or sold. A well-designed opening check should take 10–15 minutes and should be completed by the first person to arrive each day — before any food preparation begins.

Opening session

Fridge and freezer temperatures

Read the temperature of every refrigeration unit at the start of each day. For units without a built-in display, open the door and use a calibrated probe or an air thermometer. Record the unit name or location, the temperature, the date and time, and your initials. Any fridge reading above 5°C or freezer reading above −15°C requires an immediate corrective action — check whether the unit was left open, the door seal has failed, or the unit is overloaded — and do not use any high-risk product from a unit that was out of range overnight until you can confirm the maximum temperature it reached.

Equipment condition check

Walk through the kitchen and service area with eyes open for anything that creates a food safety risk. Check:

• Chopping boards — no deep score marks that harbour bacteria, correct colour-coding in use.
• Knives and utensils — clean, undamaged, stored correctly.
• Cooking equipment — clean from previous day's closing, functioning correctly, no visible damage.
• Hand-washing facilities — soap, clean drying method (paper towels or hand dryer), hot water running, no blockage.
• Pest evidence — check traps, look for droppings, gnawing marks, signs of activity. Any evidence requires a corrective action and contact with your pest control provider.
• Waste bins — emptied and lined from closing checks the previous day.

Staff health declaration

Every member of staff should confirm at the start of each shift that they have no symptoms of gastrointestinal illness — specifically vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea or stomach cramps — in the previous 48 hours. This is not optional: a food handler with norovirus can contaminate an entire kitchen in minutes, and the responsibility to exclude symptomatic staff lies with the food business. The health declaration does not need to be a lengthy form. A simple log with staff name, date, shift time, and a tick or signature confirming they are symptom-free satisfies the requirement. Any "no" answer must trigger exclusion from food handling and a corrective action record.

Allergen controls check

Before service begins, confirm that your allergen information is up to date and accurately displayed or available. Check that:

• The allergen matrix or allergen information for today's menu is current — particularly if you have any specials or menu changes.
• Allergen-segregated storage areas are correctly organised (e.g. gluten-free products stored separately and above non-GF products to prevent cross-contamination from above).
• Colour-coded equipment for allergen-modified dishes is clean, available and correctly stored.
• Any staff who will be handling allergen queries are aware of today's dishes and their allergen status.

6. Closing checks: ending the day with a safe, clean kitchen

Closing checks complete the daily due diligence cycle. They ensure that the kitchen is left in a condition that is safe, clean and ready for the next morning's opening checks. They also capture the final temperature readings of the day, verify that the cleaning schedule has been completed, manage stock rotation, and ensure waste has been properly disposed of.

Closing session

Cleaning schedule completion

Your cleaning schedule should list every surface, piece of equipment and area that requires cleaning, the cleaning method and product, the frequency and the person responsible. At closing, the person completing closing checks should verify that every item on today's cleaning schedule has been completed and initial or sign the record. If any item was not completed — because of time pressure, a breakage, or an absence — this must be noted and the omission addressed before the next service begins. An incomplete cleaning schedule is not a minor administrative failure; it is a potential food safety hazard that needs to be addressed and documented.

Stock rotation and date labelling

Check that all chilled and ambient stock is correctly date-labelled and that anything past its use-by date has been removed. Use-by dates are a legal maximum — food must not be sold or served after a use-by date under any circumstances. Best-before dates are quality indicators and food can technically be used beyond them if it is still fit for consumption, but this requires a judgement and that judgement should be documented. Apply FIFO (first in, first out) rotation — bring older stock to the front, put new deliveries behind it. Label any opened ambient products with the date they were opened.

Waste disposal

Food waste must be removed from the kitchen at the end of each day. Bins should be emptied into external waste storage, and internal bins should be cleaned, disinfected and relined. External waste storage areas should be checked — if a bin bag has split or a container has overflowed, this creates a pest attraction risk that needs to be addressed immediately and documented. If you use a waste contractor, keep records of collection dates and volumes, as these can be useful supporting evidence of food waste management in an inspection.

Equipment sign-off and final temperature check

At the end of the day, take a final reading from your fridge and freezer units to confirm they are back to their set temperature after the day's door openings and activity. Ensure that hot holding units have been cleaned and turned off, that gas and electrical equipment is correctly shut down, and that the premises are secure. Sign off the closing check with your name and time.

7. Delivery checks: controlling food safety at the point of entry

Every delivery is a potential introduction of unsafe food into your business. A product that left the supplier's warehouse at the correct temperature can arrive above temperature if the delivery vehicle's refrigeration failed or if the driver made too many stops. Packaging that is intact when it leaves a depot can be damaged in transit. A delivery check is your quality gate — the point at which you either accept food that meets your standards or reject food that does not.

Delivery session

Temperature check on arrival

For chilled deliveries, check the temperature immediately. If the vehicle has a built-in temperature display, note it. For individual products, use a calibrated probe or laser thermometer. Your own target should be no higher than 5°C for high-risk chilled goods. The legal maximum is 8°C, but using 5°C as your threshold means you have a buffer before a borderline delivery crosses the legal line — and it signals to your supplier that you take temperature control seriously.

For frozen deliveries, products should arrive frozen solid. Check for signs of partial thawing — ice crystals in the outer packaging, water pooling at the bottom of boxes, or products that feel soft rather than rock-solid. Any sign of thawing is grounds for rejection.

Packaging integrity

Check every delivery item for packaging damage. Swollen or damaged packaging on vacuum-packed meat or fish may indicate anaerobic bacterial growth. Damaged outer packaging on frozen products may indicate temperature abuse in transit. Cans that are dented at the seam (not just the body) may be unsafe. Any product with compromised packaging should be rejected.

Use-by dates

Check use-by dates on every chilled and high-risk item. Reject anything that will not be used before its use-by date, or anything where the date has already passed. Note that some suppliers deliver products close to their use-by dates without flagging this — it is your responsibility to check. Record what you received and the use-by dates in your delivery check log.

Rejection procedure

When you reject a delivery or part of a delivery, the rejection must be clearly documented. Your rejection record should capture:

• Supplier name and delivery reference
• Date and time of delivery
• Products rejected and quantity
• Reason for rejection (temperature, packaging, date, condition)
• Temperature recorded (if applicable)
• Action taken — returned to driver, held separately pending collection, or disposed of
• Supplier notified — yes/no and how

A well-documented rejection record is evidence of due diligence in action. It also creates a record that helps you identify patterns — if a particular supplier's deliveries are consistently arriving above temperature, you have the documented evidence to support a supplier change or a formal complaint.

8. Corrective actions: what to record when a check fails

A corrective action is any response to a food safety check that produced a result outside the acceptable range. It is one of the most important — and most neglected — elements of a due diligence system. Food businesses that only record the good results and ignore or fail to document the failures are creating records that are, at best, incomplete and, at worst, misleading to an EHO who will recognise that no real kitchen operates without occasional issues.

The purpose of a corrective action record is not to create a paper trail of your mistakes. It is to demonstrate that when something went wrong, you identified it, dealt with it immediately, understood why it happened, and took steps to prevent it happening again. That is the definition of a well-managed food safety system — and it is exactly what an EHO is looking for in the management category of an inspection.

Corrective action template

Every corrective action record should include the following fields:

• Date and time — when the issue was identified.
• Description of the issue — what the check found and how it differed from the acceptable range. Be specific: "Fridge 2 read 9°C at opening check on 15 May" rather than "fridge too warm".
• Product affected — the name, batch code or date code, and quantity of any food that may have been affected by the failure.
• Immediate action taken — what you did in the next few minutes to make the situation safe. For an out-of-temperature fridge: "All high-risk products transferred to Fridge 1. Fridge 2 door seal checked and found split. Engineer called." For a probe reading below 75°C on cooked chicken: "Batch returned to oven for further cooking. Re-probed at 78°C."
• Product disposition — what happened to any food that may have been compromised. Was it used (explain why it was safe to do so), discarded (quantity and reason), or held pending a decision?
• Root cause — why did this happen? An overfull fridge, a failing door seal, a probe in the wrong location, an untrained member of staff? Root cause analysis does not need to be elaborate for routine issues, but it needs to be honest.
• Preventive measure — what change have you made to prevent this happening again? A new fridge seal, a reminder added to the opening check template, a training session for the member of staff involved?
• Resolution status — is the issue fully resolved? If not, what is still outstanding and by when will it be addressed?

"Perfect records suggest a perfect kitchen. EHOs trust imperfect records with good corrective actions far more than suspiciously flawless ones."

9. Common mistakes food businesses make with due diligence records

After years of working with food businesses and reviewing EHO inspection reports, the same errors come up repeatedly. Here are the eight most damaging — and most avoidable — mistakes.

10. How FoodCore's Daily Due Diligence module can help

We built the Food Safety module in FoodCore because we kept seeing the same thing: food businesses that were running genuinely safe kitchens but spending hours on paper forms, losing records in folders, and arriving at an EHO inspection with a stack of handwritten logs that were hard to navigate quickly. There is a better way to do this.

FoodCore's Daily Due Diligence module gives you a calendar view of every day your business has been open. Days show green when all sessions are complete, amber when a session is partial, and red when a session has been flagged. Tap any day to review or add records — if you are completing a record after the fact, a "Retrospective entry" banner is automatically displayed so the record accurately represents when it was made.

Each day's sessions use configurable templates — Opening, Closing, Delivery, or any custom session you create. The module walks through each check one at a time: yes/no questions, temperature readings with your configured thresholds, free-text notes and digital signatures. When a check fails — a fridge temperature above your set threshold, a staff health declaration that comes back "no" — a corrective action is automatically raised in the Corrective Actions register. You do not need to remember to create a corrective action; the system does it for you and flags it on your Business Insights food safety dashboard.

The Settings section lets you name every fridge and freezer, set its location, and define minimum and maximum temperature thresholds. Each configured unit then appears as its own temperature check in the Opening Check template. Process temperature thresholds — cooking minimum, hot hold minimum, maximum cooling time — are also configurable, so the module reflects your specific kitchen operation rather than a generic template.

When an EHO visits, you can export a PDF report of any date range — DDD sessions, monitoring records, corrective actions — from within the app. Most EHOs who have seen a FoodCore report comment that having it organised and timestamped makes the management category review significantly easier. That ease translates into inspection time well spent on other things, and it signals a professional approach to food safety management.

We have tried to make the module useful without being pushy. You can use FoodCore's Daily Due Diligence alongside paper backups if you prefer, and the PDF export means you are never locked into the app as your only record. If a digital food safety system makes sense for where your business is, we hope FoodCore is the one that fits.

11. Frequently asked questions

Is daily due diligence a legal requirement for food businesses in the UK?

Yes. Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, retained in UK law post-Brexit, requires all food business operators to implement and maintain food safety management procedures based on HACCP principles, and to keep documents and records demonstrating the effective application of those procedures. The Food Safety Act 1990 provides a due diligence defence, but only if you can produce contemporaneous records. Daily due diligence records are the practical evidence that satisfies both requirements.

What temperature should a fridge be in a UK food business?

UK food hygiene regulations set a legal maximum of 8°C for chilled food. However, FSA guidance and industry best practice recommend a target of 5°C or below — set your fridge to 3–4°C to allow headroom for door openings and stock loading. High-risk perishables including cooked meats, dairy products, prepared salads, cream and fresh fish should always be stored at 5°C or below. Any fridge reading above 5°C at your opening check should trigger investigation and a corrective action record.

Do I need to record fridge temperatures every day?

Yes. EHOs expect to see a continuous temperature log for all refrigeration units. Once daily at opening is the minimum acceptable standard; twice daily (opening and closing) is better practice for high-risk businesses. Each entry should include the date, time, unit name or location, temperature reading, and the initials of the person who took the reading. Any out-of-range reading must be accompanied by a corrective action record — gaps or out-of-range readings with no corresponding corrective action are a red flag in an inspection.

What is the minimum cooking temperature in UK food law?

The Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 require high-risk foods to reach a core temperature of at least 75°C. This applies to poultry, pork, minced meat, reheated food and any other high-risk item. In Scotland, the minimum reheating temperature is 82°C. Always probe the thickest part of the food and record the reading. Food that has not reached 75°C must be returned to the heat — not served or held hot at a lower temperature.

What does an EHO look for during a food hygiene inspection?

EHOs score three categories: hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities, and management of food safety. The management category — which covers your records, HACCP documentation, staff training, allergen controls and corrective actions — is weighted equally with the other two. In practice, it is the most common reason a business scores below the rating its kitchen cleanliness might suggest. EHOs look for consistency, contemporaneity, plausibility and the presence of corrective action records. A well-maintained digital or paper due diligence system can significantly improve the management score.

How long do I need to keep food safety records?

There is no single statutory retention period for all food safety records. In practice, EHOs typically expect to see at least three months of daily due diligence records during an inspection, and some request up to 12 months for businesses with prior compliance issues. HACCP plans, allergen documentation and supplier approvals should be kept for as long as the procedures remain in place and for a reasonable period after any change. Many businesses keep rolling 12-month records and archive previous years digitally. If you use a system like FoodCore, records are retained indefinitely and exportable on demand.

What is the Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack and do I need it?

Safer Food Better Business is a free food safety management system published by the Food Standards Agency, designed specifically for small catering and retail businesses. It provides ready-made daily diary templates (opening and closing checks), cleaning schedules, probe calibration logs and supplier information. Completing the SFBB daily diary satisfies the due diligence records requirement under 852/2004 for most small food businesses, and EHOs widely accept it as evidence of a functioning food safety management system. You do not have to use SFBB specifically, but any system you use must cover the same elements.

What should a corrective action record include?

A corrective action record should document: the date and time the issue was identified, a description of what was found and how it differed from the acceptable range, the product affected (name, batch code, quantity), the immediate action taken to make the situation safe, the disposition of any affected product, the root cause, the preventive measure put in place, and the resolution status. EHOs view well-completed corrective action records as evidence of a mature food safety culture — they demonstrate that you find problems, deal with them and learn from them rather than ignoring or concealing them.

Can I use an app for daily due diligence instead of paper records?

Yes. Digital food safety records are fully accepted by EHOs and the FSA. The key requirements are that records are contemporaneous (completed at the time of the check, with a timestamp), tamper-evident, and exportable or printable for inspection. Digital systems have several practical advantages over paper: timestamps prevent retrospective completion, alerts flag missed sessions, and export functions mean you can hand an EHO a complete, paginated PDF report for any date range rather than a stack of handwritten forms. Many EHOs actively prefer reviewing digital records because they are easier to search and navigate.

What happens if I fail a food hygiene inspection?

The EHO will issue a report detailing any contraventions. Depending on severity, this may be informal advice, a hygiene improvement notice (a legal requirement to remedy specific issues within a set time), a hygiene emergency prohibition notice (immediate closure of the premises or equipment), or in serious cases a prosecution under the Food Safety Act 1990. Your Food Hygiene Rating Scheme score will be published on the FSA website. A poor rating is not the end — businesses can request a re-inspection once improvements are made, and many businesses move from a 2 to a 5 within weeks by addressing the management records and systems issues identified.

What is the food safety due diligence defence under UK law?

Section 21 of the Food Safety Act 1990 provides a statutory defence to any food safety offence if the person charged can prove that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence. In practice, this defence stands or falls on the quality of your records. Complete, contemporaneous daily due diligence logs — temperature checks, corrective actions, cleaning records, staff training evidence — form the practical substance of the defence. No records means no defence, regardless of how carefully the business was actually run.