The law requires either the registration or approval of all food businesses.
To store, prepare, distribute or sell food, you need to be registered as a food business with the local authority 28 days prior to opening.
However, food business may require premises approval instead of registration if you produce products of animal origin (meat, fish, dairy or eggs), and supply these to other food business establishments. Such premises must not operate until approval has been granted.
The main purpose of the registration process is to let Local Authorities know where premises are and what type of business is being operated. In this way they can ensure that every premise receives an inspection and resources can be allocated and targeted in the appropriate areas.
Please note that some details of food premises registrations are held on a Public Register which is available at council offices. This dataset shows details of the premises that are included in the Public Register for the whole of Cornwall.
