How to sell food from home in the UK (legally) in 2026

To sell food from home in the UK you need to: register your home as a food business with your local council at least 28 days before you start (it's free and can't be refused), complete food hygiene training (a Level 2 course is what most councils recommend), be able to give customers allergen information for everything you sell, tell your home insurer and consider public liability insurance, and tell HMRC once your sales pass £1,000 a year. You do not need a commercial kitchen. Then you need somewhere to take orders, which is where Cravers Eats comes in.

1. Register with your local council (free, 28 days before)

Every food business in the UK (including a home kitchen) must be registered with the local council's environmental health team at least 28 days before trading starts. Registration is free, takes about ten minutes online, and the council cannot refuse it. Search "register a food business" plus your council's name, or start at gov.uk/food-business-registration. You register once per business, and must tell the council if you move.

After registering, an environmental health officer will usually visit to inspect your kitchen and give you a Food Hygiene Rating (0–5). Inspections may be unannounced. A 5 is realistic for a clean home kitchen with good records: see how to get a 5-star rating at home.

2. Food hygiene training

The law says food handlers must be trained or supervised in food hygiene "commensurate with their work activity". It doesn't require a particular certificate, but a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene course is what most councils recommend for a home food business, and some markets ask for it. Online courses typically cost £15–£30 and take two to three hours. Inspectors will ask how you were trained, and a certificate is the easiest way to show it.

3. Allergen information (Natasha's Law and the 14 allergens)

You must be able to tell every customer which of the 14 regulated allergens each product contains: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide/sulphites, and tree nuts. For food made to order, that information can be written on your menu or given in writing with the order. For food you pack before it is ordered (pre-boxed brownies, say) "Natasha's Law" (PPDS rules) requires a full ingredients label with allergens emphasised. Selling online counts as distance selling, so allergen information must be available before the customer buys and again when the food is delivered. Read our allergen guide for home sellers.

4. A safety management system (your records)

The council expects you to follow a documented food safety system. The Food Standards Agency's free Safer Food, Better Business pack is designed for small businesses and is accepted everywhere in England and Wales (Scotland uses CookSafe). It is mostly a diary: fridge temperatures, cleaning, what you cook and when.

5. Insurance, permissions and the practical bits

• Insurance: tell your home insurer, because home policies may not cover business stock or customers visiting. Public and product liability insurance isn't a legal requirement for a sole trader, but councils strongly recommend it and markets and venues usually ask for it.
• Mortgage lender, landlord or lease: check that running a business from home is allowed, and check your council's planning advice if you expect lots of customers calling at your home.
• Pets must be kept out of the kitchen while you prepare food for sale.
• Labelling for anything sold packaged: product name, ingredients, allergens, weight, use-by/best-before, your name and address.

6. Tax: the £1,000 trading allowance

Up to £1,000 a year of sales (before costs, across all your side businesses) is covered by the trading allowance, and usually doesn't need reporting. Above that you register as self-employed with HMRC and complete a Self Assessment tax return (the government has announced the reporting threshold will rise to £3,000 later this parliament, but tax is still due on profit above £1,000). Keep a simple record of sales and costs from day one. More detail: tax on selling from home.

7. Where to actually sell

Most UK home food sellers start on Facebook and Instagram, taking orders by DM and payment by bank transfer. It works, but every order is a conversation, payments go missing, and nothing is tracked. Cravers Eats gives you your own shop in a takeaway app made for home kitchens: customers order and pay by card, allergens sit on every product, you keep 95% of each sale, and joining is free. Customers collect or you deliver locally; you set the area and the fee.

How long does all this take?

Registration must be 28 days before trading, so a month is the honest answer, but the hygiene course, insurance and your Cravers Eats shop can all be done in that same month, so you are ready to take orders the day your 28 days are up.

Sources: Food Standards Agency and local council guidance on registering a food business and allergen information (PPDS); HMRC trading allowance guidance; Cravers Eats seller terms. Last reviewed 2026-11-05.