Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) is a comprehensive food safety management system designed for small catering businesses. Learn how to implement SFBB effectively in your establishment, and keep your customers safe with our ultimate guide.

Whether you’re a seasoned restaurateur, a new cafe owner, or a catering business supervisor, this guide is designed to assist you in understanding the UK food safety regulations. You need to comply with the SFBB food safety management system to keep your food safe and your business running effectively.

And, you need to understand Safer Food, Better Business to prove to an environmental health officer that you deserve a food hygiene rating of 5.

Not sure where to start with SFBB? Don’t worry, you’re in the right place, this guide will provide you with easy-to-understand information and practical tips to enhance your food safety management systems.

What is Safer Food, Better Business?

Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) is a simple system developed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to help small to medium sized food businesses in the UK manage their food safety practices effectively and comply with food law and hygiene regulations.

The Safer Food Better Business book is a checklist that restaurant owners can download for free with all the food hygiene checks they need to do each day. Helping food businesses:

• Comply with UK law & FSA food hygiene regulations
• Prove to EHOs that you prepare food safely
• Improve food hygiene
• Keep customers safe
• Train staff
• Protect the reputation of your business

Is Safer Food, Better Business a legal requirement?

It is a legal requirement for food businesses to have an up to date and well documented food safety management system, however it doesn’t explicitly need to be the Safer Food, Better Business diary. The SFBB system provides businesses with a framework that helps them fulfil this legal requirement easily, with guidance and record-keeping templates.

Nowadays, there are quicker, simpler digital solutions that make it easier for your team to run through daily food safety checks. So you don’t need to print and trawl through hundreds of pages of SFBB.

Who is Safer Food, Better Business for?

Safer Food, Better Business is designed for a broad range of small to medium businesses, helping meet the needs of a wide range of food operations. This includes:

• Caterers: Those who provide food for events, corporate catering and more.
• Retailers: For example, butchers and bakeries that handle, prepare and sell food. 
• Childcare providers: From schools to childminders, anywhere where food is served to children. 
• Residential care homes: Especially helpful due to the vulnerability of the residents. 
• Small hotels: Particularly those serving meals, such as Bed and Breakfasts. 
• Food stalls & markets: Helpful for vendors who have less formal training but still need to comply.
  

The SFBB for caterers pack is specifically for restaurants, cafes and bars that are registered with the local authority as a food business. Trail is a complete hospitality checklist app that can help businesses of all types follow SFBB best practices and comply with the law. Explore our task templates or sign up for a free trial to give it a go.

How do I get the Safer Food, Better Business pack?

You can download and print the SFBB pack from the food.gov.uk website. The SFBB pack contains sheets for you to work through, called “safe methods”, explaining the main food safety risks and how to manage them.

Included in the pack, there’s also a Safer Food Better Business diary you need to fill in every day, noting anything different that happens, including anything that goes wrong.

The SFBB diary includes:

• Week-to-view diary pages
• Checks to do every day when you open and close
• Cleaning schedule
• 4-weekly review
• Staff training record
• Suppliers’ list
  

The manager on site needs to sign the diary every day to confirm the opening and closing checks, cleaning and safe methods have been carried out.

If something goes wrong, you need to describe what happened and what you did to fix it. Environmental health officers (EHOs) will be looking for examples of this when they visit your business as part of a food safety inspection.

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Introducing Trail, the better way to manage your SFBB diary

Trail replaces your Safer Food Better Business diary with a simple EHO approved app. The Trail app helps you:

Trail guides you through your checklists
The app works on any smartphone or tablet. Smart digital checklists automatically tell you what to do and when to do it for total confidence in your food safety management.

Comply with FSA food hygiene regulation
Trail has all the tasks from your Safer Food Better Business Diary set by the FSA.

Ensure tasks are completed correctly
Each task includes bite-sized guidance on how to complete it correctly—no trawling through endless pages of Safer Methods for what to do.

Take corrective action
Easily document if something goes wrong and leave comments on tasks so teams can take corrective action. And you can ace your next inspection.

Get a food hygiene rating of 5
Trail keeps a secure digital record of the daily checks—no loose bits of paper and binders. EHOs can locate everything quickly and easily to help you get that all important 5.

Discover how Trail can help you stay compliant today!