The SFBB 4-weekly review, step by step.

What the 4-weekly review is

Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) is the Food Standards Agency's food safety pack for small businesses in England and Wales. Alongside the daily diary, it has a review to complete every 4 weeks. The review is your chance to spot problems that keep coming back, and to update your safe methods when something changes: a new dish, a new supplier, new equipment or new staff.

Do it every 4 weeks, even if nothing went wrong, and keep it with your pack. It shows an inspector that someone is actually checking the system, not just filling in boxes.

How to do it

1. Walk around the kitchen. Spend a few minutes watching the team work. Are hands being washed, raw and ready-to-eat food kept apart, and temperatures being checked the way your safe methods say?
2. Read the last 4 weeks of records. Look through your daily diary, temperature logs and cleaning schedule. Look for gaps and for anything that went wrong more than once.
3. Write down any problems. Note any serious problem, or anything that went wrong 3 times or more. For each one, find out why and write what you did to stop it happening again.
4. Work through the checklist. Answer each question below, and write an action for anything that needs fixing.
5. Sign and date it. Then put it with your SFBB pack.

The questions to answer

• Do your safe methods still match what you actually do?
• Has allergen information been updated for any menu or ingredient changes? (allergen guide)
• Have you changed any equipment or processes in a way that changes your safe methods?
• Are new suppliers written down with their contact details?
• Does the cleaning schedule need updating? (cleaning guide)
• Have new staff been trained in all your safe methods, and do any existing staff need a refresher? (training guide)
• Are any extra opening or closing checks needed?
• Have any food complaints been looked into, and your safe methods reviewed?
• Have probe thermometers been checked in the last 4 weeks, with results written down? A probe should read between -1°C and 1°C in iced water and between 99°C and 101°C in boiling water.
• Are the extra checks you planned being done and recorded?

Based on the 4-weekly review in the Food Standards Agency's Safer Food, Better Business pack, checked 17 October 2026. Always use the current version of your own pack.

Common problems the review catches

• A fridge that keeps reading above 8°C at the afternoon check: get it serviced, and move high-risk food until it is fixed.
• Missing initials on the cleaning schedule at weekends: give one person the job of checking it at closing.
• A new dish added without updating the allergen information.
• A probe that has not been checked for months.

Doing it on your phone

Food Hygiene Record Book keeps the daily records the review looks back over, on iPhone and Android, and shows missed checks for each day, so the 4-week look-back takes minutes. See the SFBB diary in the app.