Registration

Every business that prepares, stores, distributes or sells food within the Velocity Interoperability Network must be registered with the Food Standards Office. The register records who is responsible for the food sold at every location in the Network, and is the basis on which the Office plans its inspection programme, so that the frequency of inspection reflects the risk of the activity carried on. It is also the means by which the Office reaches every business at once when a food alert is issued.

Who must register. Registration is required of businesses in the six categories below. A business that falls into more than one category registers once and lists each activity. Food prepared at home for private consumption, and food brought into a workplace by staff for their own use, are not within the rules.

Restaurants, cafés and takeaways

Any premises at which food is prepared and served or sold to customers for consumption on or off the premises, whether open to the public or to the staff of one organisation.

Staff canteens and caterers

Canteens operated by or for member organisations, contract caterers, and businesses catering for events, meetings and conferences at Network sites.

Retailers

Shops, kiosks and vending operations selling food, including those selling only prepacked or ambient food.

Manufacturers and processors

Businesses that make, process, pack or repack food for sale, including bakeries, kitchens preparing food for sale elsewhere, and bottling and packing operations.

Wholesalers and distributors

Businesses that store, transport or distribute food to other businesses, including cold stores and the operators of delivery vehicles carrying chilled or frozen food.

Mobile and temporary stalls

Vehicles, carts and stalls from which food is prepared or sold, including those operating only at markets or events. A stall must be registered even if it trades for a single day.

How to register. Registration is made by writing to the Office. The steps below apply to every category of business.

1. 1

   Step 1: Check whether you must register

   Registration is required of every business that prepares, stores, distributes or sells food within the Network, whether or not it makes a profit. The categories are listed above. If you are unsure, write to the Office and describe what you do; the Office will tell you whether registration is required.

2. 2

   Step 2: Gather the particulars

   Assemble the ten particulars set out in the table below. The name of the person responsible for the food safety management system, and the qualification they hold, are the particulars most often missing from applications.

3. 3

   Step 3: Write to the Office

   Send the particulars to the Office's email address with the subject line Registration of a food business. Applications are dealt with in order of receipt. There is no fee.

4. 4

   Step 4: Receive your registration number

   The Office confirms registration by email within ten working days and allocates a registration number and a risk category. The number must be quoted in all correspondence with the Office and shown at the premises. A mobile business must carry it on the vehicle or stall.

5. 5

   Step 5: Keep the entry up to date

   Notify the Office within 28 days of any change to the particulars registered, including a change of the person responsible, a change in the nature of the activity, or the closure of the business. An entry that is found at inspection to be out of date is recorded as a matter to be put right.

Particulars required. An application must contain the ten particulars below. An application that omits any of them is returned with a request for the missing particular, and the ten working days for confirmation run from the date the complete application is received.

Risk category. On registration the Office places each business in one of four risk categories, A to D, according to the nature of its activity and the customers it serves. The category determines how often the business is routinely inspected: every six months for category A, every twelve for B, every eighteen for C and every thirty-six for D. The categories are described on the Inspection page. A business is told its category when its registration is confirmed and may ask the Office to reconsider it within 28 days.

The register at establishment. The table below shows the businesses carried onto the register on 6 September 2026 from the interim arrangements of the transition period. The Office estimates that around 400 further businesses operating before 6 September have yet to register, most of them mobile and temporary stalls and small retailers.

A business that trades without being registered after 30 September 2026, or that begins trading without registering at least 28 days beforehand, is inspected as a matter of priority and its failure to register is recorded as a matter requiring improvement. The Office does not prohibit a business from trading solely because it is unregistered, but an unregistered business cannot be sent food alerts and cannot display an inspection certificate.

Applications and questions about registration may be sent to contact@food.gov.vin. For the rules a registered business must meet, see Food Safety and Labelling; for the number of businesses registered by site, see Statistics.