Selling Food at Markets and Events: The Rules You Need to Know

From kitchen to stall

Markets, food fairs, and events are where a huge number of small UK food businesses start out and test their products. A stall is lower-commitment than a shop, it puts you in front of real customers, and it's a brilliant way to build a following. But selling food from a market stall or at an event isn't a free-for-all; the same food safety law applies, adapted to a temporary setting.

Here's what you actually need to sell food at markets and events legally and safely.

You almost certainly need to register

The first question is registration. If you sell, cook, prepare, store, or handle food as a business, you generally need to register as a food business with your local authority, and that includes market stalls, mobile units, and temporary premises. Registration is free, can't be refused, and should be done at least 28 days before you start trading.

For a mobile setup, you register with the authority where your vehicle or equipment is kept overnight, not every place you trade. Our guide to registering a food business covers the process.

There's a narrow exception worth knowing: providing food on a very limited and occasional basis, particularly for one-off charity or community events, may not require registration, though the food must still be safe. If you're trading regularly, even just at markets, you're a food business and need to register. If you're unsure, your local authority will advise.

Allergen information still applies

A market stall doesn't exempt you from allergen law. How you provide allergen information depends on how the food is sold:

1. Prepacked items (packed before you take them to the stall) need full labelling with allergens emphasised in the ingredients list.
2. Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) items (packed on site before the customer orders) need a label with the name and full ingredients list with allergens emphasised, under Natasha's Law.
3. Non-prepacked / made-to-order food (a hot dish served on the spot) needs allergen information available to the customer, in writing or with a clear sign telling them how to get it (for example, "ask a member of staff").

Either way, you must know the allergens in everything you sell and be able to tell a customer accurately. Keeping a note of recipes and ingredients for each product is essential. Our guides to the 14 allergens and labelling cover the detail.

Temperature control away from your kitchen

The biggest practical food safety challenge at markets is temperature control away from your usual setup. Chilled foods need to stay chilled and hot foods hot, often without your normal equipment:

• Keep chilled food cold in transit and on the stall, using cool boxes, coolbags with ice packs, or powered refrigeration. Don't let it sit warming in the sun.
• Keep hot food hot if you're serving it hot, at a safe holding temperature.
• Carry a thermometer and check temperatures; record them as you would in your kitchen.
• Plan transport so the cold chain isn't broken on the journey to the event.

This is where many stallholders slip, simply because a field on a warm day isn't a kitchen. Treat temperature control as seriously off-site as you do on-site.

The practical stall setup

Your temporary setup still needs to allow hygienic working:

1. Handwashing. You need a way to wash hands hygienically, which at a stall often means a portable handwashing setup with water, soap, and a means of drying. This is frequently checked.
2. Clean surfaces and protection from contamination. Surfaces you can clean, and protection for food from weather, dust, insects, and customers (covers, screens).
3. Separation of raw and ready-to-eat, by space or by careful handling.
4. Waste. Somewhere to put waste hygienically.
5. Clean water for any washing up or food preparation.

Your local authority and the FSA publish guidance specifically for mobile and temporary premises, which is worth reading before your first event.

Keep your records, even on the road

Trading at markets doesn't pause your record keeping. Your temperature checks, your allergen information, and your other relevant records still need maintaining, and arguably they're more important on the road, where conditions are harder to control. Keeping records on a phone rather than a clipboard makes this far easier when you're working from a stall, and means your market trading sits in the same system as the rest of your compliance. FoodSafe lets you keep your records and allergen information with you wherever you trade, so a day at a market is as documented as a day in your kitchen.

Trade with confidence

Selling at markets and events is one of the best ways to grow a small food business, and it's entirely achievable to do it properly. Register as a food business, handle allergen information correctly for how you sell, take temperature control seriously away from your kitchen, set up your stall so you can work hygienically, and keep your records wherever you are. Get those right and you can focus on the fun part, meeting your customers and selling great food, knowing the compliance is handled.

For selling without a physical stall at all, see our guide to selling food online.

Food safety compliance, handled.