How to Register a Home Food Business in the UK

You cannot sell food from your home kitchen until you have registered the business with your local authority and met the statutory food hygiene requirements. This is not optional, and it is not gated by turnover. If you sell one brownie at a village fete, the law applies.

The registration process is free. The compliance layers around it cost between £80 and £200 to set up, then about £60 to £150 per year to maintain. Most of the work is front-loaded: once you have registered, obtained your food hygiene certificate, written a basic HACCP plan, and arranged insurance, the only recurring obligation is to keep your knowledge current and renew your policy.

This guide covers every step in the order you need to complete them.

1. Register with Your Local Council

Every food business in the UK must be registered with the local authority environmental health department at least 28 days before you start trading. The registration is free and applies to the premises, not the business name or structure.

You register online at food.gov.uk using the 'Register a food business' portal. The system routes your application to the correct local authority based on your postcode.

The form asks for:

• Your name and contact details
• The business address (your home kitchen)
• The type of food you will prepare
• Whether you will store, prepare, or package food
• Your expected start date

You do not need a business name, a bank account, or any certifications to register. You just need to tell the council that you intend to sell food from that address.

Once registered, your premises receive a Food Hygiene Rating (0 to 5) after the first inspection. The inspection is unannounced but typically happens within three months of registration. A rating of 3 or above is workable; below 3 limits your ability to supply wholesale or attend certain markets.

2. Obtain a Food Hygiene Certificate

UK law does not strictly require a certificate for the business owner, but it does require that anyone handling food has received adequate supervision, instruction, and training in food hygiene. In practice, every council environmental health officer expects to see a Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering (or equivalent) when they visit.

The course is available online from multiple providers (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Highfield, iHASCO) and costs between £20 and £35. It takes about three hours, and the certificate is valid for three years.

The syllabus covers:

• Microbial, chemical, physical, and allergen hazards
• Safe storage temperatures and cold-chain control
• Cross-contamination prevention
• Personal hygiene and protective clothing
• Cleaning schedules and pest control

You sit a short multiple-choice exam at the end. Pass mark is typically 70%. If you have worked in a commercial kitchen, most of the content will be familiar. If you have only baked at home, the section on allergen control and the legal definition of 'use by' versus 'best before' is worth reading carefully.

Keep a PDF copy of the certificate. Environmental health officers ask to see it during inspections, and some wholesale customers ask for a copy before placing an order.

3. Write a HACCP Food Safety Plan

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is a structured food safety system that identifies where contamination could happen in your process and sets controls to prevent it.

Every food business in the UK must have a HACCP plan in place, or a system based on HACCP principles. For a home kitchen making low-risk ambient products (brownies, granola, biscuits), the plan is typically two to four pages. For higher-risk products involving dairy, cream fillings, or raw meat, the plan becomes more detailed.

A minimum HACCP plan for a home baker includes:

• A list of the products you make
• A simple process flow (receive ingredients → store → mix → bake → cool → package → label)
• Hazard identification at each step (e.g. allergen cross-contact during mixing, microbial growth if cooling is too slow)
• Control measures (e.g. separate utensils for allergen-containing batches, cool to below 5°C within 90 minutes for chilled products)
• Monitoring (e.g. visual check, probe thermometer reading, cleaning log)
• Corrective action if a control fails (e.g. if a brownie batch is underbaked, do not sell it)

You do not need to hire a consultant. The Food Standards Agency provides a Safer Food, Better Business pack (SFBB) designed for small caterers and bakers. It includes templates for cleaning schedules, temperature logs, and supplier lists. You fill in the sections relevant to your operation.

Environmental health officers expect to see the SFBB pack or an equivalent written plan during the first inspection. They do not expect a 40-page manual, but they do expect evidence that you have thought through the hazards and have controls in place.

4. Allergen Information and Natasha's Law

UK law requires you to provide allergen information for every product you sell. There are 14 allergens you must declare if they appear in your recipe:

The format of allergen information depends on how you sell:

Selling at Markets or In Person

If a customer can ask you a question before buying, you can provide allergen information verbally. You must also display a sign at your stall that says: 'Ask us about allergens in our food' or similar wording.

You should have a written list behind your stall so you can answer accurately. Guessing is not acceptable.

Selling Pre-Packaged Products (Natasha's Law)

If you pre-pack food on your premises and sell it directly to the customer at the same location or at a market, the product is classified as PPDS: prepacked for direct sale. Since October 2021, Natasha's Law requires every PPDS product to carry a label showing:

• The name of the food
• A full ingredient list in descending order of weight
• Allergens emphasised within the ingredient list (bold, uppercase, highlighted, or underlined)

There is no exemption based on turnover or business size. If you sell brownies in a sealed bag at a farmers' market, the label must include the ingredient list with allergens emphasised.

Fines for non-compliance can reach £5,000 per breach. FSA inspection data from 2023 showed that 24% of PPDS businesses were not fully compliant, most commonly due to missing or incomplete ingredient lists.

Selling Online

If you sell via your own website, Etsy, or Instagram, allergen information must be provided in writing before the customer completes the purchase. This can be in the product description, on the checkout page, or in a downloadable allergen matrix.

You cannot rely on 'contact us for allergen information'. The information must be available without the customer having to ask.

5. Arrange Insurance

Insurance is not a statutory requirement to trade, but no market organiser, event coordinator, or wholesale customer will let you trade without proof of cover. You need two policies:

Product Liability Insurance

Covers claims if your product causes harm. Common scenarios include allergic reaction due to undeclared allergens, food poisoning, or foreign object contamination. Typical cover is £1 million to £5 million.

Public Liability Insurance

Covers claims for injury or property damage caused by your trading activity. Example: a customer trips over your market gazebo leg, or your product display falls and damages another trader's stock. Typical cover is £5 million.

Specialist food business insurers (Protectivity, Towergate, Simply Business) offer combined policies for home food businesses. Annual cost is typically £60 to £150, depending on turnover, product type, and whether you trade at markets or online only.

Most policies exclude cover if you do not hold a valid food hygiene certificate or if your Food Hygiene Rating falls below 3. Read the exclusions.

Keep a PDF copy of your insurance certificate on your phone. Market organisers ask to see it when you arrive to set up.

6. Register for Self-Employment with HMRC

If you are earning income from your food business, you must register as self-employed with HMRC. There is no income threshold that triggers registration; the obligation begins as soon as you start trading with the intention of making a profit.

You register online at gov.uk/register-for-self-assessment. HMRC will issue a Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and confirm your Self Assessment filing deadlines.

You do not pay tax on turnover. You pay income tax on profit (turnover minus allowable expenses) above the personal allowance, which is £12,570 for the 2024/25 tax year. You also pay Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance if your profit exceeds the lower threshold (currently £12,570 for Class 4).

Allowable expenses include ingredients, packaging, labels, insurance, market pitch fees, website hosting, mileage, and a proportion of your household energy bills if you use your home kitchen for business purposes. Keep every receipt.

You file a Self Assessment tax return once a year. The deadline is 31 January following the end of the tax year (5 April). If you registered in June 2024, your first return covers 6 June 2024 to 5 April 2025 and is due by 31 January 2026.

If you already file Self Assessment for another reason (rental income, freelance work), you add the food business as a new source of self-employment income on the same return. You do not need a separate registration.

7. VAT Registration (Only Above £90,000 Turnover)

You must register for VAT if your rolling 12-month turnover exceeds £90,000. Turnover means total sales before any deductions. For a market trader selling brownies at £3.50 each, that threshold is roughly 25,700 brownies per year, or 494 per week.

Most home food businesses stay below the threshold for the first two to three years. If you do cross it, you register at gov.uk/register-for-vat and begin charging 20% VAT on every sale (or 0% if your product qualifies as zero-rated, which applies to most undecorated cakes and biscuits but not to confectionery or cakes with non-essential decoration).

You can reclaim VAT on business expenses (ingredients, packaging, equipment) once registered, but the administrative load increases significantly. Do not register voluntarily unless you are selling primarily to VAT-registered wholesale customers who can reclaim the VAT you charge.

8. Trading Standards and Environmental Health Visits

Once you are registered, two agencies have the authority to inspect your premises:

Environmental Health (Food Safety)

Officers inspect hygiene standards, HACCP compliance, and temperature control. The first inspection is usually unannounced and happens within three months of registration. Subsequent inspections depend on your Food Hygiene Rating: a rating of 5 might mean the next visit is in two years; a rating of 1 might mean a revisit in three months.

The tone is investigative, not adversarial. Officers want to see that you understand the risks and have controls in place. If they find issues, they typically issue an improvement notice with a deadline. Prosecution is rare and reserved for serious breaches or repeat non-compliance.

Trading Standards (Labelling and Weights)

Officers check allergen labelling, ingredient accuracy, weight declarations, and claims (e.g. 'gluten-free', 'organic'). They can request samples and test them in a lab. They also enforce Natasha's Law compliance for PPDS products.

Trading Standards visits are less frequent than Environmental Health visits unless you sell online at scale or make health claims. However, they can issue fines up to £5,000 per labelling offence, so accuracy matters.

Both agencies can request documentation during a visit: HACCP plan, supplier invoices, temperature logs, cleaning schedules, allergen matrix, insurance certificate, food hygiene certificate. Keep a folder (physical or digital) with everything in one place.

How Long Does Registration Take?

If you start today, this is the realistic timeline:

Total upfront cost: £80 to £185. Total setup time: one to two days of focused work, plus the 28-day waiting period.

Most people underestimate the allergen labelling step. If you sell six different products, you need six separate ingredient lists with allergens emphasised. If you change a recipe, you must update the label. This is where errors creep in.

What Happens If You Trade Without Registering?

Trading without registration is a criminal offence under the Food Safety Act 1990. Local authorities can issue a fine or, in serious cases, prosecute. The fine is not fixed; it is determined by the magistrates' court and can reach several thousand pounds.

More commonly, trading without registration means:

• You cannot obtain insurance, so no market organiser will let you trade.
• You cannot prove to wholesale customers that your premises are inspected and rated.
• If a customer has an allergic reaction and you are unregistered, your legal position is significantly worse.

The 28-day waiting period exists so that environmental health officers can inspect your premises before you start selling. Skipping registration does not save time; it just increases risk.

The Next Action

If you have not yet registered, go to food.gov.uk and complete the 'Register a food business' form today. The 28-day countdown starts when the council receives your application, not when you decide you are ready.

If you are already registered but have not written a HACCP plan or prepared allergen labels, that is the next layer. The FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack is free and designed for small operators. Download it, print the relevant sections, and fill in the templates.

If you are selling PPDS products (brownies in bags, granola in jars, loaf cakes in boxes) and your labels do not yet show a full ingredient list with allergens emphasised, you are trading in breach of Natasha's Law. Fix the labels before the next market.

Compliance is not the interesting part of running a food business, but it is the part that determines whether you can keep trading when someone asks to see your paperwork.