New: the free 12-step MobCater startup guide is now in the app. Open the app →

What Do I Need to Pass Environmental Health From My Home Kitchen?

by Lisa Prowting
(Uxbridge Middlesex)

Home caterer preparing food in a clean grey home kitchen set up for a food business

Home caterer preparing food in a clean grey home kitchen set up for a food business

What requirements do I need to meet for environmental health to pass my own kitchen for food preparation?

Comments for What Do I Need to Pass Environmental Health From My Home Kitchen?

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Sep 21, 2026
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		What Do I Need to Pass Environmental Health From My Home Kitchen?
by: MobCater

Good news first, Lisa. You can absolutely run a catering business from your own kitchen, and plenty of caterers I know started exactly that way. The council will not turn up expecting a stainless steel commercial unit. What they want to see is a kitchen that is clean, well organised, and set up so that food cannot be contaminated. Before any of that though, you need to register as a food business with your local council, and it is free. Do it at least 28 days before you start trading, through food.gov.uk/register. Registration cannot be refused, so there is nothing to be nervous about there.

Once you are registered, the Environmental Health Officer will come and have a look. The first thing every EHO I have dealt with checks is handwashing. You need a dedicated way to wash your hands, with hot and cold running water, soap and a hygienic way to dry them. Ideally that means a separate basin just for hands, kept away from where you wash up food and equipment. Getting your handwashing right is the single thing that reassures an officer fastest.

After that it is the everyday stuff. Work surfaces that are in good condition and easy to clean, a fridge and freezer with a thermometer, and a simple record of your fridge temperatures each day. Keep the family and any pets out of the kitchen while you are preparing for the business, store your business food separately from the household shopping, and have proper waste and pest control sorted.

The part that catches most people out is the paperwork. By law you need a written food safety management system, and for a small kitchen the Safer Food Better Business pack from the FSA is exactly what they expect to see. It is free to download and you fill it in as you go. I would also get a Level 2 Food Hygiene certificate, which you can do online for around £25, and make sure you understand the fourteen allergens.

Get those in place and you should sail through. The officer will give you a Food Hygiene Rating from zero to five, and with a tidy home kitchen and your SFBB pack filled in there is no reason you cannot land a five. I keep a simple version of all this in the free app's startup checklist, so you can tick each requirement off before the officer visits.

Best of luck

David

Disclaimer: Food safety rules are updated from time to time. Always check the latest FSA guidance and speak to your local EHO for the most current requirements in your area.

Try the free MobCater App, our startup checklist and guide walks you through every step: https://www.mobcater.co.uk/mobile-catering.html

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Mobile Catering Licence .

Your first trading day is closer than you think

Start free today with the 12-step guide, and skip the trial and error most new caterers learn the hard way.

Start the free 12-step guide