Luton Borough Council

Home caterers start up advice

In general food manufacturing of any products containing meat, fish or dairy can not be carried out in domestic premises if you intend to sell the products to shops or other caterers.

For example you cannot make meat/fish pies, samosas, kebabs or soups or carryout canning or bottling of any product with a meat or fish content and sell it to caterers, shops or other retailers.

You must contact the Food and Safety team if you go ahead with your planned business as it is a legal requirement to register with us. An officer may call you in the coming week to clarify the type of business you intend to start. Follow this link for an explanation of our role in regulating your business. Note that for home caterers we will always pre-arrange visits.
Follow this link for information on starting up a food business
Follow this link for information which covers the basics of food hygiene
Allergen awareness is important when selling food to the final consumer
It is a legal requirement to have a written food safety management system. A free system called Safer Food Better Business is available. This has been designed for caterers by caterers. You can type onto this version of the pack and print it off once completed. If you prefer you can print the relevant sections of the pack and fill it in by hand. The amount of sections relevant to you will be decided by the type of food you prepare and sell.
Follow this link to a document that explains how your food hygiene rating is judged and gives tips on what practices to follow to achieve a better rating. Follow this link for further guidance on the control of cross contamination, commonly known as the E coli guidance.
Training in food hygiene is also a legal requirement. It is also recommended that those who have an adequate qualification in food hygiene have refresher training every 3 years. If you get through the information above you will know better if you need to attend a course or not. The Level 2 Food Safety in Catering course is delivered by our food and safety officers. Follow this link for the dates of upcoming courses
Though we do not enforce health and safety legislation at domestic premises this example food preparation risk assessment may be useful when analysing risks at your business
Business support is available from our economic development team