Food safety records a roastery should keep
An inspector judges your food safety system by its records. A short, complete set kept every day beats a thick folder filled in the night before. What to record, and how often.
6 min read Updated 9 October 2026
Records prove that your food safety plan is followed. They also make complaints and insurance claims easier to answer. Keep them proportionate: a small roastery needs a handful of simple logs, filled in as the work happens.
The core records
| Record | How often | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier list and approval | On new suppliers, reviewed yearly | Where your green coffee, packaging and ingredients come from |
| Goods in | Every delivery | Condition, lot reference, accepted or rejected |
| Storage checks | Weekly | Green store clean, dry, off the floor, pests absent |
| Critical control point checks | Each session or run | Destoner working, metal detector tests passed, actions taken |
| Roast batch logs | Every batch | Lots used, profile, operator, any deviation |
| Pack run checks | Each run | Label correct, weights in tolerance, seals sound |
| Cleaning schedule | As scheduled | Who cleaned what, and when |
| Pest control | Per visit or check | Monitoring results and actions |
| Training | On induction and refresh | Who is trained in what |
| Calibration | As scheduled | Scales and probes checked |
| Complaints | Each complaint | What, which batch, investigation, outcome |
| Maintenance | Each service or clean | Roaster, ducts, afterburner, grinders |
Making records stick
Good habits
- Keep each log where the job happens
- Use tick boxes with space for a note, not long forms
- Record actions taken when a check fails, not only the failure
- Review records weekly and sign the review
- Move logs into software when paper starts going missing
How long to keep them
Keep food safety and traceability records for longer than the shelf life of your products and long enough to deal with any complaint. Many businesses keep them for several years. Financial records have their own rules: HMRC generally expects limited companies to keep records for six years.
Where Roastnet helps
Questions roasters ask
- What records will an environmental health officer ask for?
- Usually your food safety plan, critical control point checks, cleaning and pest control records, training records and traceability for a sample batch.
- Can food safety records be digital?
- Yes, as long as they are complete, accurate, dated and available when an inspector asks.
Official sources
Rules change. These sources were checked on 9 October 2026; always confirm the current position with the body that publishes them before you act.
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