Register your food business

Registration applies to most types of food business, including catering businesses run from home and mobile or temporary premises, such as stalls and vans. If you use two or more premises, you will need to register all of them.

If food premises are used by several catering businesses (for example, a village hall or conference centre), the person who allows the premises to be used for this purpose is responsible for registering them.

Registration is simple. You can download a registration application form from some local authority websites, which can be completed and emailed, faxed or posted to the food team in the environmental health department. Other local authorities offer online registration, where an electronic form can be completed and submitted online.

Contact your local authority to find out how you can register. To find the contact details of your nearest local authority you could use our online search facility.

Before opening, get in touch with your local authority to plan your business, organise waste and recycling collection and get appropriate training and tools – it could cost you more money if don’t. It makes good business sense to serve food that is safe to eat – good food hygiene helps prevent food poisoning and protects your reputation with customers.

You might need to register as self-employed and/or register for Valued Added Tax (VAT). These registration processes are completely separate from registering your food premises.

If you want to make changes to your premises, remember that you might need planning permission.

You will need to pay business rates on most premises and licences for certain activities, such as selling or supplying alcohol or selling hot food between 11pm and 5am.

Below is a checklist of these and other issues you need to consider. More advice about each of these can be found in the Agency's booklet: ‘Starting Up – Your first step to running a catering business’, at the link towards the end of this page. The booklet is available in English and other languages.

Checklist for starting up

• Have you registered your premises?
• Do the design and construction of your premises meet legal requirement?
• Have you put food safety management procedures in place and are you keeping up-to-date records of these?
• Do you and your staff understand the principles of good food hygiene?
• Have you considered health and safety and fire safety arrangements?
• Have you registered as self-employed?
• Do you need to register for VAT?
• Are you keeping records of all your business income and expenses?
• Are you keeping records of your employees’ pay and do you know how to pay their tax and National Insurance contributions?
• Do you describe food and drink accurately?
• Do you need to apply for a licence to sell alcohol, for entertainment, for selling hot food and drink late at night, or selling food on the street?

The Agency provides resources to help food businesses comply with food hygiene legislation. These include Safer food, better business (SFBB), which is an innovative and practical approach to food safety management. There are two different SFBB packs – one for small catering businesses and one for small retail businesses – complemented by an online version of the SFBB DVD, which can be used to help train your staff in good food hygiene.

These and other resources can be found at the links below.