New Food Businesses
Registering your business
You must register your premises with Environmental Health at East Herts at least 28 days before opening. Registration is free and 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 have more than one premises, you will need to register all of them.
Details of how to register can be found on our Food Premises Registration page.
Designing and managing your food business
- Do the design and construction of your premises meet legal requirement?
- Are you aware of the main General Food Law Requirements?
- Do you keep written records of all the suppliers that provide you with food or any food ingredients?
- Have you put food safety management procedures in place to ensure food is stored, produced, served and/or transported safely and hygienically?
- Will you be using Safer Food Better Business as your food safety management system or creating your own?
- Do you and your staff understand the principles of Food Hygiene and Safety
- Is there adequate separation between your raw and ready to eat foods?
- Have you considered health and safety and fire safety arrangements?
If you are unsure of the answers to these questions you can check out our information on Food Hygiene and Safety. If you still have questions about your new food business please Contact Environmental Health.
Other registrations, licences or permissions which you may need
You will need a licence from the Council if you want to do the following things:
- provide Alcohol & Late night entertainment refreshment
- see the Street Trading Consents page if you plan to sell food from a stall or van on the street
- trade from one of the Markets in East Herts, including farmers markets
- certain alterations to the premises or change of its current use
Health and safety within your business
As a food business operator you not only have to consider food hygiene, but also the safety of your staff and yourself. Read our information on Workplace Safety for further details.
Other organisations you may need to register with
- 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?
- Have you declared any allergens in the food products?
- Is the product correctly labelled?
Further guidance for your business
Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership's pages on Better Business for All provide information on how businesses can access the support they need from Local Authorities.
The Hertfordshire Growth Hub website provides information on the support they can offer to businesses in Hertfordshire.
See the Hertfordshire County Council website for support the county council can offer businesses.
