EC plans registration for all food premises

Food premises of all sizes - from restaurants to hot dog stands and farm shops - face compulsory registration and detailed record keeping under new proposals from the European Commission (EC).

Trade associations warn that the regulations, which could come into force within four years, would bury small firms under more red tape and might deter new start-ups or lead to closures.

Each registered company would have a unique number that would follow their products down the food chain to ensure all foods and ingredients could be traced through the supply line.

In order to trade, food operators would also have to meet strict hygiene standards.

The EC would expect food firms to keep detailed records of food and ingredients, and of hazard analysis safety checks such as fridge temperatures.

The Federation of Small Businesses will lobby for exemptions for the 500,000 UK small traders it is estimated would be affected. Spokesman Stephen Alambritis feared that the "paperwork and hassle" involved in compliance could cost firms between £200 and £1,000 a year for each restaurant.

Restaurant Association chief executive Ian McKerracher added that the record-keeping proposals would "add a huge administrative and time burden that small businesses can ill afford."

But the Food Standards Agency argued that the proposals should make businesses more efficient and should lead to fewer and shorter visits from environmental health officers.

The proposals were announced last week by David Byrne, the health and consumer protection commissioner, in what was billed as "the most radical shake-up for 25 years of the community's food safety hygiene rules".

by Angela Frewin