Low risk food businesses

We inspect all new businesses registered with us in accordance with the requirements of the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.

The information gathered is used to ensure that your business meets food safety law requirements. It also determines how often your business needs to be inspected.

Types of low risk business

The lowest risk businesses are not routinely inspected. When a food business is contacted, you must provide us with specific information to help us to decide if it still remains a low risk business.

The types of business which may be low risk include:

home caterers
newsagents
some mobile caterers
market stalls
community groups
cricket clubs
child minders.

We will contact these businesses approximately every three years and ask them to complete a questionnaire. If there have been no significant changes to the business or ownership, we will not need to carry out an inspection. No further action is needed by you.

If the circumstances have changed, we may need to visit to carry out an inspection. We also visit a small proportion of these businesses annually to verify the information provided.

Submit a self-assessment questionnaire

When you receive a letter or email from us informing you that a food safety inspection is due, you must complete our food safety self-assessment questionnaire. We legally require this information from you.

You can complete the questionnaire using the online form below. The questionnaire should not take more than five minutes to complete.

Submit food safety self-assessment questionnaire

If there have been no substantial changes to your business, we will not need to contact you for another three years.

If we have not heard from you by the required response time, we may need to visit your business to carry out the inspection. There may be implications on the food hygiene rating applied to your business.

Contact details

For further information about food safety inspections, contact us using the details below.

Email: eandr@nfdc.gov.uk

Phone: 023 8028 5411

Environmental Health
New Forest District Council
Appletree Court
Beaulieu Road
Lyndhurst
Hampshire
SO43 7PA