Food Safety Policies for Pubs and Hotels

Every pub and hotel that serves food is a food business, and the law expects it to run a documented food safety management system. That system, and the records that prove it is followed, decide most of your food hygiene rating.

Pubs and hotels have particular pressures. Menus change with the seasons, kitchens run long hours with mixed teams, and hotels add breakfasts, room service and functions to the main restaurant.

This guide sets out the legal basis, what a food safety management system for a pub or hotel contains, and the records an environmental health officer will ask to see.

Food Safety Duties at a Glance

Requirement	What it means in practice
Register as a food business	With your local authority, at least 28 days before you start serving food
Food safety management system	Written procedures based on HACCP principles, such as Safer Food Better Business
Temperature control	Chilled food at 8°C or below by law in England; hot holding at 63°C or above
Cleaning and hygiene	Cleaning schedules, handwashing, pest control
Allergen information	For every dish, with staff trained to answer questions
Training	Food handlers supervised and trained in food hygiene in line with their work
Records	Proof the system is followed day to day

The Legal Basis

The Food Safety Act 1990 makes it an offence to sell food that is harmful or not of the quality expected. The detail sits in retained food hygiene law, and Article 5 of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires every food business to put in place, implement and maintain procedures based on HACCP principles.

In England, the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 give environmental health officers their enforcement powers and set temperature control rules. Wales and Northern Ireland have equivalent regulations.

HACCP stands for hazard analysis and critical control points. In plain terms, you work out what could make food unsafe at each step, decide how to control it, check the controls work and keep records.

Safer Food Better Business

Most small and medium pubs and hotels use the Food Standards Agency's Safer Food Better Business pack for caterers, part of the FSA's guidance for running a food business. It turns HACCP into a set of safe methods grouped under the four Cs: cross-contamination, cleaning, chilling and cooking.

The pack works only if you fill it in for your own kitchen and keep the daily diary. A blank or generic pack on a shelf will not satisfy an inspector.

Larger hotels, groups and businesses with complex processes, such as sous vide, curing or large functions, usually need a fuller HACCP plan written for their own operation.

What the System Should Cover

Deliveries and Storage

Check deliveries for temperature, damage and use-by dates, and reject anything that fails. Store raw and ready-to-eat food separately, label and date everything once opened, and rotate stock.

Temperature Control

In England, chilled food must be kept at 8°C or below, and the FSA recommends fridges run at 5°C or below to give a margin. Hot food on display must stay at 63°C or above.

Cook food until it is steaming hot all the way through; safe methods commonly use a core temperature of 75°C, or 70°C held for two minutes. Cool food quickly, ideally within 90 minutes, and reheat it only once.

Record fridge and freezer temperatures at least twice a day, and probe and record cooking, cooling and hot-holding temperatures. Calibrate probes regularly.

Cross-Contamination

Keep raw meat away from ready-to-eat food at every stage: storage, preparation and service. Use separate boards, knives and cloths, or clean and disinfect them properly between uses.

Allergen cross-contact belongs here too. Our guide to allergen management in restaurants and cafés covers the controls for the 14 allergens.

Cleaning

A cleaning schedule should say what is cleaned, how, how often and by whom, with chemicals that meet the right standards for disinfection. Sign-off sheets show it happens.

Personal Hygiene and Fitness to Work

Set rules for handwashing, protective clothing and jewellery. Food handlers with diarrhoea or vomiting must report it and stay away from work until 48 hours after symptoms stop.

Pest Control

Most pubs and hotels use a pest control contractor. Keep their visit reports and act on what they find, because an infestation can lead to immediate closure.

Pub-Specific Points

Pub kitchens are often small, with a few chefs covering long hours and part-time front-of-house staff serving food. The system needs to work when the head chef is off, so the safe methods and records must be simple and clear.

Seasonal menus, specials boards and Sunday carveries all need their own safe methods. Carvery meat held hot for hours needs probe records through service, not only at the start.

Hotel-Specific Points

Hotels run several food operations at once: breakfast buffets, a restaurant, room service, bars and functions. Each needs its own controls, because the hazards differ.

• Breakfast buffets. Hot items held at 63°C or above, cold items chilled, and time limits for anything left out.
• Room service. Time from kitchen to room, covered trays, and collection of used trays.
• Functions and weddings. Large batch cooking and cooling, with extra records and enough fridge space planned in advance.
• Outside caterers. Who is responsible for food safety when an external caterer uses your kitchen or venue.

Ice and Bar Food Handling

Ice is food. Ice machines need regular cleaning and descaling, a scoop kept outside the bin, and staff who never use a glass to scoop ice, because a chip of glass in a drink is a serious hazard.

Bar staff who cut garnishes, serve bar snacks or carry plates are food handlers too. They need the same handwashing rules and basic training as the kitchen team.

Approved Suppliers

Keep a list of approved suppliers and what you buy from each. Local produce, game and home-made items from outside the kitchen are attractive on a pub menu but carry extra risk if the source is not known.

For each supplier, check they are registered or approved where the law requires it, and keep delivery notes so you can trace a batch if there is a recall.

Reviewing the System

Review the food safety system whenever the menu, equipment or kitchen layout changes, and at least once a year. Update the safe methods before a new dish or process starts, not after.

Walk the kitchen with the system in hand. If a record sheet is never filled in, or a method describes equipment you no longer use, fix the document so it matches reality.

Staff Training

Food hygiene law requires food handlers to be supervised and instructed or trained in food hygiene in line with their work. Most businesses use a recognised Level 2 food hygiene course for food handlers and Level 3 for supervisors and chefs.

Keep training records, and refresh training regularly. Agency, seasonal and front-of-house staff who handle food need training before they start.

Inspections and Your Hygiene Rating

Environmental health officers inspect food businesses at intervals based on risk. Under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, they score three areas: how food is handled, the condition of the premises, and confidence in management, which is largely about your documented system and records.

Ratings run from 0 to 5. Display is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland, and voluntary but expected by customers in England.

Local authorities warn that without a documented food safety management system a business is unlikely to score above 1. If your rating is lower than you expected, you can appeal, give a right to reply, or ask for a re-inspection once you have made improvements.

When Things Go Wrong

Officers can serve a hygiene improvement notice, prohibit a process or, where there is an imminent risk to health, close the premises. Serious failures can lead to prosecution.

Your system should include what to do after a complaint or suspected food poisoning: keep any remaining food, record what was served and to whom, and contact your local authority. Learning from near misses, such as a fridge found running warm, prevents the serious incidents.

The Documents You Need

• A food safety policy setting out responsibilities and how the system is managed.
• A HACCP-based food safety management system, such as a completed Safer Food Better Business pack.
• Temperature, cleaning, delivery and pest control records.
• An allergen management procedure and matrix.
• Training records for every food handler.
• A procedure for complaints, incidents and suspected food poisoning.

Food Safety Policy and Procedure Writers

We write food safety policies and HACCP-based procedures for pubs, inns and hotels, built around your kitchens, menus and service. They are part of our hospitality policies service, priced from £65 per document, alongside our food hygiene policies.

For the wider set of rules your venue works under, from licensing to tips, see our hospitality industry hub. Get a quote for a fixed price.