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Safer food, better business

Food safety management for small businesses

If you run a food business you must have a documented food safety management system. In other words, you need to say how you make safe food and have this written down. The amount of documentation you need is related to the type of food you prepare or handle and the risks presented by your business.

A lot of consideration has been given to help smaller food businesses comply with food regulations without introducing an unnecessary burden. Following extensive consultation with the food industry the Food Standards Agency (FSA) developed Safer Food Better Business (SFBB).

SFBB is designed to be practical and easy to use and will help you to:

SFBB is a simple fact sheet system that shows how to ensure that potential hazards in a food business can be safely controlled, namely those to do with:

Free SFBB packs, DVD & extra diary sheets

The FSA has distributed over 400,000 copies of the SFBB pack since it was launched in 2005. A range of SFBB packs for different types of businesses, cuisines and languages is available online:

A free SFBB interactive DVD is also available to help you use your pack and train your staff on SFBB. It has voiceovers in 16 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, English, Kurdish, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.

If you would like to order a copy of these packs, the DVD or extra diary sheets call FSA Publications on 0845 606 0667 or email foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk.

SFBB has been tailored specifically for small caterers and retailers. Manufacturers and other food businesses will find it more appropriate to adopt a different type of documented food safety system (known as HACCP). For further advice contact the Healthy Communities team.

Where can I get more information?

From the Food Standards Agency or by contacting Environmental Health Services.

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