Food safety guides
Direct, sourced answers to the questions independent hospitality operators search before they're ever looking for software: inspections, ratings, and what SFBB actually requires.
How to prepare for a food hygiene inspection
An inspector assesses three things: how hygienically you handle food, the physical condition of your premises, and how well you manage food safety day to day. Have your diary up to date, your safe methods adopted, and your certificates and servicing records to hand, and the visit itself is straightforward.
How to get a 5 food hygiene rating
A 5 means an inspector found your food hygiene and safety practices, the physical condition of your premises, and your management systems all fully complied with the law at the time of inspection. There's no shortcut: it comes from consistently getting all three right, day to day, not from anything you do specifically for the visit.
What is Safer Food Better Business (SFBB)?
Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) is the Food Standards Agency's free food safety management pack for small catering and retail businesses in England. It's built around safe methods across five categories and a daily diary you sign to confirm you've followed them, and it's the foundation almost every UK food hygiene inspection is assessed against.
Paper SFBB or a digital diary: what actually changes
The Food Standards Agency's own guidance permits keeping your SFBB diary electronically instead of on paper. What matters to an inspector either way is that the record is complete, consistent, and genuinely reflects what happened, not the format it's kept in. A digital diary mainly changes how easy that is to prove.