Much like unicorns and dragons, there are rare people who actually enjoy fulfilling health & safety guidelines, writing risk assessments and ensuring proper practice. If that’s you then you’ll love this lesson. If that’s not you, this lesson will help you understanding health & safety is an essential part of your street food business.
You HAVE TO get good at health & safety if you’re running a food business. Best case is that no-one notices; worst case is that you could go to prison (not a joke). If you think health and safety isn’t important and it’s fine not to bother with all of the below, then don’t bother starting a food business.
We’ve made it as easy as possible to understand what you’ve got to do to be legal and safe. Also, if you get good at health & safety event organisers will love you. You will get more work, and make more money because they know they can trust you.
We’ve stopped working with traders based solely on poor health & safety. The best traders back up their food with systems and admin, it’s not the sexiest part of street food but if you want to work at any event, take it seriously
Alana Buckley, Commercial Director, KERB
Here’s some Tony Blair style repetition to make a point.
<aside> 💡 Join NCASS. Join NCASS. Join NCASS.
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It costs £239 to join for the year, but what you get from them is hugely valuable. 99.9% of KERB traders are members of NCASS; the 0.1% who aren’t probably worked as a health and safety professional before starting a street food business.
As we work through the documents that are required to trade legally you’ll see quite how much NCASS provide.
You will need public liability insurance. NCASS offer it, as do other organisations like the National Market Traders Federation. When you’re getting insurance check what types of events are covered as what you plan to do and the insurance you’ve got may differ. (Bear in mind that there are different types of insurance that are offered and this doesn’t cover your equipment against damage etc.)
Educate yourself about food hygiene before you do anything else. You can get your food hygiene certificate from your local borough, from NCASS and from numerous other online outlets. The main thing is that you fully understand the processes, applications and consequences of running a food business.
<aside> 🔥 You always need someone with food hygiene level two on your stall if you’re selling food. Council and market owners will check this!
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We covered this earlier, but make sure you register as a food business with your local council before you intend to trade. 28 days before is best practice but in theory you can trade straight away. This will cover you to trade in the whole of the UK. An environmental health officer will come and inspect your kitchen and processes to make sure you know the fundamentals of food safety.
If you get inspected, you should aim to achieve five stars, as more and more councils are not allowing low ratings to trade in their borough.