Food Hygiene Requirements for Events with Food Vendors

Your responsibilities as an event host

As the event host, you are not directly responsible for the food safety of individual vendors — each vendor must comply with food hygiene regulations independently. However, you have a general duty of care to the public attending your event, and you should take reasonable steps to ensure food vendors are operating safely.

In practice, this means:

• Checking that food vendors are registered as a food business with their local authority.
• Checking food hygiene ratings before accepting a vendor.
• Setting clear expectations about allergen management, particularly around Natasha's Law compliance.
• Ensuring the venue provides adequate facilities — handwashing, waste disposal, and (if relevant) power and water supply.
• Considering whether to notify the local environmental health team about the event.

A well-organised event with proper vendor checks protects both your attendees and your reputation as a host.

What to check before the event

Before accepting a food vendor at your event, ask for and verify:

• Food business registration — every food business must be registered with their local authority at least 28 days before they start trading. Ask to see their registration confirmation or check with the relevant council.
• Food hygiene rating — the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) gives businesses a score from 0 to 5. Ratings are publicly available on the FSA website (ratings.food.gov.uk). Consider setting a minimum acceptable rating — a rating of 3 or above is a reasonable threshold for most events.
• Public liability insurance — food vendors should carry PLI, just like any other stallholder.
• Allergen management — ask how the vendor manages allergen information for their products. Since Natasha's Law, prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food must carry a full ingredients label with allergens in bold.
• Relevant training — while there is no legal requirement for a specific food hygiene certificate, Level 2 Food Hygiene training is widely considered the standard for anyone handling food.

Keep a record of the documents you have checked. This demonstrates due diligence if any issue arises.

On-the-day checks

On the day of the event, do a walkround of food vendor stalls to check:

• Handwashing — every food vendor should have access to handwashing facilities with soap, warm water, and paper towels. If the venue does not provide running water near food stalls, portable handwashing stations may be needed.
• Temperature control — hot food should be kept hot (above 63°C) and cold food should be kept cold (below 8°C, ideally below 5°C). Check that vendors have appropriate equipment.
• General cleanliness — stalls should look clean and organised. Food should be stored off the ground and protected from contamination.
• Allergen information — check that PPDS food is labelled correctly and that non-prepacked food has allergen information available (on signs, menu boards, or verbally on request).
• Waste disposal — food waste should be disposed of properly, not left in open bins that attract pests.

You do not need to be a food hygiene expert to do these checks — common sense goes a long way. If something looks wrong, ask the vendor about it.

Hot food and cooking equipment

Food vendors using cooking equipment at your event create additional considerations:

• Gas-powered cooking (LPG) — requires adequate ventilation, a fire extinguisher within reach, secure gas bottle storage, and safe positioning away from the public. Many indoor venues prohibit LPG cooking entirely. Check with your venue before allowing gas cooking.
• Electrical cooking — generally safer indoors but requires an adequate power supply. Check that the venue's electrics can handle the load and that extension leads are used safely.
• Open flames — barbecues, fire pits, and charcoal cooking need a clear safety zone around them, fire extinguishing equipment, and safe disposal of ash and coals.
• Deep fat fryers — require particular care due to the risk of oil fires and burns. Vendors using deep fat fryers should have a fire blanket and appropriate extinguisher.

Include cooking equipment in your event risk assessment and position food vendors appropriately — away from foot traffic bottlenecks, exit routes, and combustible materials.

Notifying environmental health

There is no universal legal requirement to notify your local environmental health team about every event with food vendors. However:

• Some councils request or require notification for events above a certain size.
• For larger events (100+ food vendors, or events expecting thousands of attendees), notification is considered best practice.
• If your event is on council-owned land, the council may already be aware and may set conditions relating to food safety.

Notifying environmental health is free and can be helpful — they may offer advice on food safety arrangements for your event and can be a useful resource if you have questions.

Check with the local authority for the area where your event takes place to find out their notification expectations.

When things go wrong

If a member of the public reports a food safety concern during your event:

• Take the complaint seriously and record the details — what happened, which vendor, what was consumed, and the complainant's contact information.
• Speak to the vendor and assess the situation. If there is an obvious food safety issue (food being stored at the wrong temperature, visible contamination, lack of handwashing facilities), ask the vendor to stop trading until the issue is resolved.
• If someone is seriously unwell and you suspect food poisoning, advise them to seek medical attention and report the incident to environmental health.
• Keep your records. If a complaint is made to environmental health after the event, having a record of what happened and what you did shows that you acted responsibly.

As the event host, you are not expected to be a food safety inspector — but you are expected to respond sensibly to concerns and not ignore obvious problems.