Your food safety management system must be supported by documents and records that are proportionate to the nature and size of your business. You must provide the competent authority with evidence that you comply with the HACCP duty in the way it requires, keep the documents describing your procedures up to date, and retain other documents and records for an appropriate period. The law sets no fixed retention period. Failing to do these things is an offence under the food hygiene regulations.
If your business is involved in a food safety incident, you will need to show your records as evidence of how you keep food safe.
- Records required
- Documents and records proportionate to the nature and size of the business
- Retention period
- An appropriate period; no fixed period in law
- Evidence of compliance
- Provided to the competent authority in the way it requires
- Procedure documents
- Kept up to date at all times
- SFBB diary
- Daily opening and closing checks, problems or changes, and extra checks
- SFBB diary retention
- Until your next visit from a local authority food safety officer
- Staff training
- Keep a record of training completed, to show at inspection
- Traceability
- Be able to identify your suppliers and the businesses you supply
Templates for records
The Food Standards Agency provides document templates for most food safety practices, including cleaning, maintenance, pest control, chemical records, staff training, staff hygiene and staff health and sickness.
Traceability
Food businesses must be able to identify anyone who supplied them with food or an ingredient, and have systems to identify the businesses they have supplied. This information must be made available to the competent authorities on demand. Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 sets no retention period for traceability records.