Essential Legal Considerations For Budding Restaurateurs
Starting a restaurant could well be one of the most stressful things a human being is capable of attempting; look no further than the latest culinary dramadies for proof. Whether you’re hot off the latest season of The Bear, or cultivating a long-held dream of serving pasta to the masses, you’ll need to take care in building up your first restaurant concept.
Yes, there are concerns about demographic, footfall, overheads and long-term profitability, but your first and most practical concerns relate to the legal side of the equation. One wrong step here, and you could be shut down before you ever open up. So – what do you need to know about the legal side of opening up a new restaurant?
Register your food business
Step one is to register your food business with your local authority. This is something you need to square away no less than 28 days before you start trading, else you will not be able to operate legally. Since you’ll be selling food to the public, your local authority needs to have you on file; food can be a dangerous thing if handled poorly!
Get your food safety basics right
Which brings us neatly to what is easily the single most important back-of-house concern for you as a budding restaurateur – food safety. Poor hygiene, or a poor approach to food safety, fundamentally puts your customers at risk – something which can not only cause serious physical injury, but which can also threaten the closure of your operation altogether.
The Food Standards Agency is the body you’ll answer to with respect to your hygiene practices and management of allergens – both of which you’ll find extensive guidance about on the website. Proper communication and management processes for food safety are necessary not just to pass random inspections, but to ensure your customers have a safe experience with you.
Understand licences
As an operating restaurant that serves customers on-premises, you’ll need to get the relevant licenses to enable such service – and to enable any additional activities you’d like to pursue, such as the sale and service of alcohol on-site. This isn’t something you can afford to get wrong, so it would behove you to seek legal advice before you proceed; specialist lawyers for restaurants can help you navigate this part of the system, as well as any complaints you might experience from neighbours or residents relating to your practices.
Handle customer data properly
An ancillary consideration is that of data – which, while not the life-or-death matter that poor food safety can become, remains a significant legal concern if handled poorly. Though the UK has left the EU, it has retained an identical set of regulations to EU GDPR law, meaning you need privacy and data protection policies for properly handling customer data gleaned from bookings and reservations.