Safer food better business (SFBB)

Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) is a pack for small catering businesses developed by the Food Standards Agency and the industry to help businesses such as restaurants, cafes, takeaways, childminders, care homes, similar catering outlets and food retailers to prepare food safely and comply with the food hygiene regulations.

The pack comprises of two halves. The first half contains four key sections titled Cross-contamination, Cleaning, Chilling, Cooking. These sections will help you identify what how to produce safe food.

The second half of the pack contains a diary section in which you can maintain monitoring records about your business.

Visit the Food Standards Agency website (opens new window) for further information.

All food businesses are required by law to have a documented system based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles.  This system must set out how your business will produce food safely. 

Your system must identify any hazards which may affect the safety of the food. It must identify how those hazards will be controlled, how those hazards will be monitored and what action will be taken if something goes wrong compromising food safety. Each of these steps must be written down.

By using the Safer Food Better Business pack, completing the Safe Method and Management sections, using the daily diary, regularly reviewing procedures to ensure these are on track and training staff in how to use the pack, businesses will be able to comply with this legal requirement.

Failure to put in place a documented food safety management system and written procedures will significantly impact on the food hygiene rating for a business.

The pack and the diary refills can be downloaded from the Food Standards Agency  FSA (opens new window)

Your staff must be suitably trained in the tasks you expect them to carry out; the training must include those parts of the Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack relevant to their roles. 

The pack has been designed so you can use it to provide in house training on your chosen methods.  You must record any training you give your staff, you can use the training section of the pack to do this.

You must remember that this is not a substitute for certificated basic food hygiene training. You will still need to identify which members of staff will need additional training, e.g. supervisors and managers.     

Visit the Food Standards Agency website (opens new window) for additional training material.

The law doesn't stipulate SFBB as the standard but this toolkit has been developed with small businesses in mind. There are other systems available based on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system (opens new window) which will meet the law, e.g. CookSafe - a Scottish version which can also be downloaded. CookSafe manual (opens new window)

Other systems may involve a cost to your business and you will need to ensure that it meets the legal requirements.

Safer Food Better Business is available in a range of languages from the Food Standards Agency website (opens new window).

You can take your SFBB pack with you but it is always wiser to start a new pack for a new catering operation. If you are chef moving on to a new job you also risk leaving your employer and team without their food safety management system when you move on. If  you own your business and take your existing pack to a new premise, then make sure it is up to date and reflects the way your new business will operate. Make sure you record that review in the pack.

You must also make sure your staff are trained in any of the changes you make to your pack.

It is a good idea to keep records, particularly fridge and freezer temperature records and cooked food temperatures to help you prove you are doing things correctly. These can be recorded in the pack's diary section. 

Maintaining monitoring records will assist in any 'due diligence' defence if you are charged with any offence under the law. 

Your record keeping must reflect the size and nature of your business. This means that you need to think about how many staff you have, they type of food you produce and the scale and methods of production. It important that your records help you manage your business and ensure that safe food is being produced.

You should store all your completed diary pages safely until your next visit from a local authority enforcement officer. He or she may want to look at your diary pages. During the visit, check with the enforcement officer how long he or she wants you to keep your diary pages.