Guide
Set up and run a compliant farm shop
How to register, comply with food safety, and handle VAT when selling produce directly from your farm. Covers food business registration, HACCP requirements, and VAT treatment of different products.
Selling produce directly from your farm - whether your own produce or sourced products - requires food business registration and compliance with food safety regulations. This applies whether you're selling from a permanent shop, a stall, or through a vending machine.
Getting food safety wrong can result in prosecution, unlimited fines, and closure of your business. However, the requirements are proportionate - a small farm shop has different obligations to a supermarket.
Food business registration
Food safety management (HACCP)
The requirement for a HACCP-based food safety system sounds daunting, but the Food Standards Agency provides a free pack called 'Safer Food Better Business' specifically designed for small food businesses. It provides templates for recording cleaning, temperature checks, supplier details, and food safety procedures.
Download it from the FSA website, adapt the templates to your farm shop operation, and train your staff to use it. Environmental Health Officers expect to see completed records when they inspect, not just blank templates.
Key food safety requirements
- Temperature control: Keep chilled foods below 8°C, frozen foods at -18°C or below
- Hygiene: Handwashing facilities, clean surfaces, pest control
- Traceability: Records of where food came from and where it went
- Allergen information: Clearly display allergen information for pre-packed foods
- Training: Staff must be trained in food hygiene appropriate to their role
VAT for farm shops
Record-keeping for VAT
If you sell a mixture of zero-rated and standard-rated items, your till system or sales records must separately track each VAT category. This allows accurate VAT return completion. Many farm shops use electronic tills programmed with VAT rates for each product to automate this.
If selling both your own farm produce and bought-in products, keep separate records. This helps if you later want to use the agricultural flat rate VAT scheme for your farming enterprise (which has specific rules about non-agricultural sales).
Planning permission
Whether you need planning permission depends on the scale and nature of your farm shop:
- Small-scale, own produce only: May be permitted under agricultural use rights, but check with your local planning authority
- Significant retail operation: Likely needs change of use planning permission (Use Class E)
- Building alterations: May need planning permission regardless of use
Many farm shops operate without explicit planning permission until complaints are made. This is risky - retrospective applications are harder to win. Seek pre-application advice from your local planning authority before investing significantly.