01
The format is not the food safety system
Food businesses must put in place and maintain food safety management procedures based on HACCP principles. SFBB is one way for suitable smaller businesses to develop and document those controls; digitising a few temperature readings does not, by itself, satisfy the whole requirement.
FSA SFBB guidance says completed diary pages can be kept electronically or as printed copies. The important distinction is between storing a diary electronically and assuming an app automatically supplies all safe methods, management procedures and reviews your business needs.
The operator remains responsible for keeping procedures suitable, implemented and current, and making relevant documentation available to the competent authority. Discuss any uncertainty about a proposed system with your local authority before discarding existing records.
02
Use the right guidance for your nation
'Digital SFBB' is often used loosely as shorthand for electronic kitchen records. The official guidance is not identical across the UK, so check the pack and procedures that actually apply.
| Location | Relevant guidance | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) | Use the relevant pack and tailor safe methods to the operation. |
| Northern Ireland | Safe Catering | Follow the Northern Ireland guidance and local-authority advice. |
| Scotland | CookSafe | Use Food Standards Scotland guidance and suitable house rules. |
In practice: Do not copy a diary template from another business or nation without checking your own processes and requirements.
03
What your digital setup must support
Start with your food safety procedures and map each relevant part to a digital record, a retained document or another controlled method. Do not select checks simply because they are already available in an app.
Good records explain what was checked, when a problem occurred and what was done. Traceable entries help you review the system, but neither timestamps nor a locked history prove that a procedure was correctly followed.
- Safe methods covering your actual food handling, cleaning, cross-contamination, cooking, chilling and other relevant hazards.
- Opening, closing and routine checks appropriate to the business, with meaningful exceptions and corrective actions.
- Management reviews, process changes, staff instruction and supervision.
- Current allergen and supplier/traceability information, held in an appropriate accessible form.
- A way to retrieve and share relevant records, including when the usual manager is absent.
- A continuity plan for device failure, unavailable internet, account access and preserving historical records.
In practice: Check the full system for gaps. An editable safe-method page or a temperature log is not necessarily the complete official pack.
04
Move from paper without losing evidence
Use a deliberate changeover rather than throwing away the binder on signup day. Keep earlier records available according to the retention arrangements appropriate to your business; do not invent one universal retention period for all food records.
- Inventory the procedures and records you currently use, including any inspector-requested controls.
- Choose what will move digitally and what will remain as a separate document; update procedures to explain the new method.
- Set up relevant checks and named staff access, then train the team on honest recording and corrective actions.
- Trial the workflow through actual service, including offline saves and retrieving a recent day's report.
- Keep the old records available and record when the new system became the working method.
- Review missing checks, retrieval and export after the changeover and whenever the menu or processes change.
05
Avoid the 'approved app' assumption
Permission to keep electronic records is not an endorsement of a software provider. Do not treat a vendor's description of 'SFBB-style' features as evidence of FSA approval or full coverage of your obligations.
LogYou has editable SFBB-based safe methods, checks and recorded evidence, but this guide does not claim that it is an officially approved SFBB app or supplies the complete official pack. Keep the procedures and documentation your business requires, inside or alongside the app.
