The SFBB Daily Diary: What to Record Every Day (and What Inspectors Look For)

### What the SFBB diary is for Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) is the Food Standards Agency's food safety management system for small catering businesses. The daily diary is where you show that the system is actually being followed, not just that it exists. ### Opening checks Before service starts, confirm and sign that: - Fridges, freezers and hot-holding equipment are working and at the right temperature. - Work surfaces, equipment and hand-wash stations are clean and stocked. - Staff are fit for work and in clean uniform. - Date labels on prepared food are correct and nothing is past its use-by date. ### Closing checks At the end of the day, confirm and sign that: - Food is covered, labelled and stored correctly, with raw and ready-to-eat separated. - Cleaning tasks are completed, including the equipment on your weekly list. - Waste is dealt with and the premises are secure and pest-free. ### Exceptions and corrective action The diary also has a place for anything that went wrong: a fridge running warm, a delivery that arrived out of temperature, a piece of equipment that broke. Record what happened and what you did. An inspector usually trusts a kitchen that records problems and fixes them more than one where every day looks perfect. ### The four-weekly review Every four weeks, look back over the diary. Are there repeated problems? Do procedures still match how you work? Have staff or menus changed? Sign and date the review. ### Why paper diaries fall down Paper gets wet, lost or filled in from memory at the end of the week. A digital diary time-stamps each entry and shows who signed it, so it is easier to prove the checks really happened when they should have. Safe Kitchen follows the SFBB structure with opening and closing checks, staff PIN sign-off, cleaning schedules and a four-weekly review, and produces a 1-click PDF you can hand to your EHO. Try it free for 30 days. No credit card needed.