To help businesses comply with food safety law, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has developed a Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) pack. This is designed to make it easy to develop a food safety management system suited to your own catering or retail operation. SFBB is about identifying what you do already to ensure the safety of food and making sure your checks are appropriate and being applied.

There are a number of SFBB packs available which are designed to meet the specific needs of different food businesses. There are packs for small catering businesses, small retail businesses and restaurants and takeaways that serve different cuisines, such as Chinese or Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan cuisines. There is also a supplement for care homes that is designed to be used with the pack for caterers.

To accompany the SFBB packs a DVD guide, available in 16 different languages, has been produced to help food businesses implement SFBB and train staff on SFBB.

An online version of the DVD is also available.

The Council also runs a free seminar that covers use of the SFBB pack. Further details are provided on our food hygiene training webpage.

Using the SFBB Pack

The pack focuses on four key areas of food safety (known as the "4 C's"):

Each SFBB pack is split into five sections containing a number of fact sheets called ‘Safe Methods’. Typical safe methods would include instructions on “Cooking Food Safely” and “Reheating” for example. The idea is that you look at the pack and decide which safe methods apply to your business - and then follow them. There are about twenty methods in total covering aspects of the "4 C's", but not all of them will apply to all businesses.

A simple diary is also provided for appropriate record keeping. This includes a four-weekly review to ensure that the document remains up-to-date and allows common problems to be identified and addressed.

How do I get an SFBB Pack?

There are two types of SFBB pack available. The first is designed for small caterers and the second for retailers (those who don't prepare food but nevertheless need to keep high risk food safe i.e. a newsagent selling pre-made sandwiches). The Retail pack is smaller and easier to complete.

• View the Food Safety website SFBB& information for Caterers
• View the Food Safety website SFBB information for Retailers

If you would like to order an SFBB pack, diary refills or the DVD guide telephone Food Standards Agency Publications on 0845 606 0667 or email foodstandards@ecgroup.co.uk.

How do I Access the Online SFBB DVD?

The SFBB interactive DVD can be viewed online at food.gov.uk/sfbbtraining or you can download a copy to your computer. The online video content is the same as the SFBB DVD with voiceovers in 16 languages with English subtitles.

Further Information

If you would like to speak to a Food Officer about use of the SFBB pack or arrange a visit to your business then please contact us at:

Environmental Health Service, Civic Centre, Tannery Lane, Ashford  TN23 1PL

Telephone: 01233 330470

Email the Environmental Health Team

Fax: 01233 330469