Registering a Food Premises

Image of baked cookies If you are planning to start a new catering business, it is required by law that you register your premises with the Environmental Health Service at your local authority at least 28 days before opening. This applies to most types of food business, including catering businesses run from home, and mobile or temporary premises such as stalls and vans.

Any food business operating on a total of 5 or more days within 5 consecutive weeks within the borough of Elmbridge must register with Environmental Health & Licensing.

In addition:

If you use two or more premises, you will need to register all of them.
If food premises are used by several catering businesses (e.g. a village hall or conference centre), the person who allows the premises to be used for this purpose is responsible for registering them.

The registration of food premises allows Local Authorities to:

keep up-to-date details of food premises in their area in order that they can be inspected when necessary - the frequency of inspection will depend on the type of business and risk rating given by Environmental Health & Licensing
ensure that an up-to-date list of food establishments registered and approved with them is available for inspection by the general public at all reasonable times
ensure that copies of their lists of registered and approved food establishments can be provided to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) when requested, so that national lists can be compiled.