Digital SFBB vs Paper Pack: Which Suits UK Caterers?
The Food Standards Agency's Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) pack is a well-known way for small caterers to manage food safety. You can run it on paper exactly as published, or with a digital system that covers the same ground. This is a fair comparison — including where paper still makes sense.
Access and convenience
- Paper: always there on the wall or in a folder; no device, battery or login needed.
- Digital: log from a phone or tablet anywhere in the kitchen; multiple staff can record at once.
Version control
- Paper: one master copy; changes mean crossing out, rewriting or reprinting pages, and older versions can drift around.
- Digital: one current version for everyone, with a history of what changed and when.
Evidence and audit trail
- Paper: signatures and dates prove who did what — as long as the page isn't lost or damaged.
- Digital: automatic timestamps, optional photo evidence and easy backup; harder to misplace a month's worth of records.
Offline use
- Paper: works with no power and no signal — a genuine strength in a busy or patchy-signal kitchen.
- Digital: good systems keep working offline and sync when you're reconnected; check this before you commit, as not all do.
Cost
- Paper: almost free to start — print, a folder and a pen.
- Digital: a monthly or annual subscription, but it can save hours a week in filing, finding and preparing for inspections.
Adoption by staff
- Paper: familiar and low-friction, but easy to skip an entry or fill it in at the end of the day.
- Digital: needs a minute of training and a charged device; one-tap entries and prompts can actually improve completion.
Inspection readiness
- Paper: an EHO can read a tidy folder on the spot; a messy or incomplete one is hard to defend.
- Digital: pull up any week's records in seconds, and export a print-ready pack for the visit.
When paper is the right choice
- A very small operation with one or two staff who already keep immaculate paper records.
- Sites with unreliable power or internet and no spare device.
- A new business testing the waters before committing to any subscription.
Paper is absolutely fine if it's complete and well kept. Digital tends to win as staff numbers, sites or inspection pressure grow — but it's a tool, not a requirement.
Frequently asked questions
Is a digital SFBB pack legally accepted?
Keeping records digitally is widely accepted provided they cover the same information and are available to an officer on request. The legal requirement is to have a food safety management system based on HACCP and to keep it accessible — not to use paper specifically.
What if I lose internet in the kitchen?
A good digital system should keep working offline and sync later. If you're choosing one, check its offline behaviour. Paper, of course, never has this problem.
Is paper ever the better choice?
Yes — for a very small, low-tech kitchen that already keeps tidy records, paper can be simpler and cheaper. The best system is the one your team will actually use consistently.
Want to move from paper to digital without losing anything? Start free with Pro Plato or compare the plans.