A sample page of the actual document
A food safety daily diary is the written proof that your food safety system is actually being run, not just sitting in a folder. On inspection an Environmental Health Officer treats a blank or gap-filled diary as evidence the system is failing, while a complete one with real numbers is your legal defence if someone falls ill. Filled in properly it also catches a warm fridge or an undercooked batch before it reaches a customer.
A food safety checklist in the Safer Food, Better Business style: opening checks, closing checks and the day's temperature records on one page, signed, dated, and easy to keep up in a real service.
Food Standards Agency, Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) for Caterers, safe method cards: Chilled Storage, Cooking, Hot Holding, Chilling Down, and Prove It (food.gov.uk); Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2200), reg 4 (chill holding at 8C) and reg 8 (hot holding at 63C); Regulation (EC) 852/2004 as retained in UK law, Article 5 (HACCP-based management and records); FSA 'Cooking safely in your business' (75C or equivalent such as 70C for 2 minutes); Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (reheating to 82C); Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 (Natasha's Law, PPDS allergen labelling, in force 1 October 2021).
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What’s on it
Everything that matters, nothing that does not. Here is the full list, exactly as it appears on the template.
Good to know
The hot-holding 'two-hour rule' is a one-time allowance per batch, not a window you can reset by reheating. Once food has been below 63C for up to two hours you serve it, chill it down, or bin it; you cannot reheat it and start hot-holding again. Separately, the 8C chill limit is the legal maximum, but EHOs work to the FSA best-practice target of 5C, so storing at 7C is lawful yet invites scrutiny and shortens safe shelf life.
Source: Food Standards Agency, Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) for Caterers, safe method cards: Chilled Storage, Cooking, Hot Holding, Chilling Down, and Prove It (food.gov.uk); Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2200), reg 4 (chill holding at 8C) and reg 8 (hot holding at 63C); Regulation (EC) 852/2004 as retained in UK law, Article 5 (HACCP-based management and records); FSA 'Cooking safely in your business' (75C or equivalent such as 70C for 2 minutes); Food Hygiene (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (reheating to 82C); Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 (Natasha's Law, PPDS allergen labelling, in force 1 October 2021).
Good to know
The daily written record that sits behind SFBB: your opening and closing checks, fridge and cooking temperatures, and anything that went wrong plus what you did about it, signed and dated. Kept daily, it is the evidence your food safety management system is actually being used.
UK food businesses must run a food safety management system based on HACCP principles and be able to show it working. For small businesses the FSA's Safer Food, Better Business pack with a daily diary is the accepted route, and this diary follows that format.
A food safety daily diary is the written proof that your food safety system is actually being run, not just sitting in a folder. On inspection an Environmental Health Officer treats a blank or gap-filled diary as evidence the system is failing, while a complete one with real numbers is your legal defence if someone falls ill. Filled in properly it also catches a warm fridge or an undercooked batch before it reaches a customer.
The hot-holding 'two-hour rule' is a one-time allowance per batch, not a window you can reset by reheating. Once food has been below 63C for up to two hours you serve it, chill it down, or bin it; you cannot reheat it and start hot-holding again. Separately, the 8C chill limit is the legal maximum, but EHOs work to the FSA best-practice target of 5C, so storing at 7C is lawful yet invites scrutiny and shortens safe shelf life.
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Your temperature log is the main evidence that your cold storage is actually working. A missing entry, or an out-of-range reading nobody acted on, is what turns a single fridge fault into a food poisoning case and a failed hygiene inspection. This list makes every entry a real number, taken at the right time, with the action recorded when something goes wrong.
A wrong, out-of-date, or missing allergen line can put a customer into anaphylaxis and kill them. It also breaks the Food Information Regulations 2014, where giving false or misleading allergen information is a criminal offence carrying an unlimited fine, not just a hygiene black mark. A correct matrix is what lets any team member answer "what's in this?" the same way every time.
Cooking and reheating temperature records are the main evidence an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) uses to judge whether your food safety system actually works on the floor, not just on paper. Ticks, the word 'OK', or numbers all written up at the end of the shift are treated as no record at all, and that alone can drop your hygiene rating and trigger a return visit. Done properly, this log catches food that never reached a safe core temperature and flags failing equipment before it causes a food poisoning incident.