Hospitality compliance software, compared

Food safety software is any system that replaces the paper records a UK food business is required to keep: temperature logs, opening and closing checks, cleaning schedules, allergen information, and the HACCP plan or SFBB pack underpinning them. The category has widened well beyond record keeping. Most platforms now handle staff training records, equipment maintenance, supplier documents and the evidence pack an Environmental Health Officer asks for on arrival.

That breadth is why picking one is hard. A takeaway that only needs its SFBB diary digitised has almost nothing in common with a twelve-site group that needs HACCP plans, allergen matrices and training records to stay in step across every kitchen. Pricing models differ just as much: some vendors charge per location, some per user, and several publish no price at all. The right tool depends on which of those problems is actually yours.

We group the guides below into three areas. Compliance covers the regulatory core, the things an EHO will ask to see. Operations covers the daily running of a kitchen, from temperature monitoring to kitchen management. Protection covers what happens when something goes wrong: insurance, complaints, licences and risk assessments. Each guide compares real products on published pricing, names their weaknesses as well as their strengths, and states plainly when a vendor does not publish what it charges.