Free food safety posters for UK kitchens (and the signs you legally need)

Food safety posters remind staff of the habits that keep food safe: handwashing, allergens, separate chopping boards, fridge temperatures and cleaning. Most kitchen posters are good practice, not the law. But a few signs are legal requirements, such as the health and safety law poster, an allergen statement if allergen information isn't written on your menu, and your hygiene rating sticker in Wales and Northern Ireland. Print our 9 free UK posters below, then check the legal list.

This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Your council's food safety and health and safety teams can tell you what they expect.

What's in the free food safety poster pack

The 9 posters, ready to print

Each poster below is short enough for one A4 sheet. Print this page from your browser, or copy a poster's text into your own document, set a large font (28pt or bigger) and add your logo. Laminate it before it goes on the wall.

Poster 1: How to wash your hands

Wash your hands:

• before you start work and before handling food
• after the toilet
• after touching raw meat, fish or eggs
• after handling bins, cleaning or dirty laundry
• after breaks, eating, smoking or touching your phone, face or hair

How:

1. Wet your hands with warm running water.
2. Use liquid soap.
3. Rub palms, backs of hands, between fingers, thumbs and fingertips.
4. Rinse well.
5. Dry with a disposable towel.
6. Turn off the tap with the towel.

Poster 2: The 14 allergens

Celery · Cereals containing gluten · Crustaceans · Eggs · Fish · Lupin · Milk · Molluscs · Mustard · Peanuts · Sesame · Soya · Sulphur dioxide and sulphites · Tree nuts

Check every label. If you're not sure, ask the chef. Never guess.

Poster 3: Chopping board colours

• Red: raw meat
• Blue: raw fish
• Yellow: cooked meat
• Green: salad and fruit
• Brown: vegetables
• White: bakery and dairy

Keep boards on a rack, wash them after each use and replace them when deeply scored. (Pick one colour scheme, print the one you use, and train staff on it.)

Poster 4: The 4Cs of food hygiene

• Cleaning: clean as you go, then disinfect surfaces and equipment.
• Cooking: cook food until it's steaming hot all the way through.
• Chilling: keep cold food cold and put deliveries away fast.
• Cross-contamination: keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart, with separate boards, knives and storage.

Poster 5: Safe temperatures

In Scotland, 8°C is recommended rather than required; CookSafe says to reheat to 82°C, or 70°C for 2 minutes if 82°C would spoil the food.

Poster 6: Two-stage cleaning

1. Clean: remove dirt, food and grease with hot soapy water.
2. Rinse if the product label says so.
3. Disinfect: apply the sanitiser at the strength on the label.
4. Leave it for the full contact time on the label.
5. Dry: air dry or use a single-use cloth.

Poster 7: Feeling ill? Tell us before your shift

Tell your manager before you start work if you have diarrhoea or vomiting.

Don't handle food until you've been free of symptoms for 48 hours.

Also tell your manager about infected cuts or skin problems.

Poster 8: Allergen sign for customers

Food allergies and intolerances

Please speak to our staff about the ingredients in your meal before you order.

Poster 9: Daily opening and closing checks

Opening:

• fridge and freezer temperatures checked and written down
• handwash basins have soap, hot water and towels
• probe thermometer clean and working
• surfaces clean and staff fit for work

Closing:

• food covered, labelled, dated and chilled
• out-of-date food thrown away
• surfaces cleaned and disinfected
• bins emptied
• SFBB diary or HACCP records signed

For a full allergen poster in the FSA's order, see our 14 allergens guide. To record temperatures, use our free fridge temperature log sheet.

Signs and posters UK food businesses must display

These are the ones with a legal basis. Rules differ by nation, so check each row.

Two notes on the HSE law poster: you have to buy the official poster (A2 or A3) from HSE Books or a verified reseller, because you can't print your own. If you already have the 2009 version, it's still valid.

Prices and service charges? Make your prices, and any service or cover charge, clear to customers before they order. See our tipping law guide for the service charge rules.

Good-practice posters officers like to see

None of these are legally required, but they support your "confidence in management" score at inspection:

• handwashing at every basin
• chopping board colour code
• cleaning schedule with sign-off
• temperature targets by fridges and the hot hold
• allergen procedure for staff ("who takes allergy orders, where the matrix is")
• sickness reporting
• probe thermometer calibration and cleaning
• pest sighting: who to tell

Posters only help if staff follow them. Officers will ask staff questions, so use the posters in training too. More tips are in our 5-star food hygiene rating guide.

Where can I get official free posters?

• FSA: allergen icons and posters, and an allergy sign, on GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence.
• HSE: the health and safety law poster (paid, from HSE Books) and free leaflet.
• Your council: many environmental health teams share free posters and SFBB support packs.
• Food Standards Scotland: CookSafe resources for Scottish caterers.

Tips for posters that work

1. Keep them short. One message per poster. Pictures over paragraphs.
2. Laminate them. Kitchens are wet and greasy.
3. Use your team's languages. Many UK kitchen teams speak several languages, so copy the text and translate it where it helps.
4. Replace faded or out-of-date posters. An old temperature poster with the wrong numbers looks worse than none.
5. Date your allergen sign and matrix. Officers check they match today's menu.

Put your allergen and menu information where customers look

A poster in the kitchen helps staff. Customers want the information on the menu they're reading. With Menuthere, your QR table menu and online ordering page come from one menu, so you update dishes in one place. Tick which of the 14 allergens each dish contains, and add calories and a halal mark if you like, on every plan including Free. Customers see them when they open a dish. Keep an allergen matrix for the detail (it can load your dish allergens from Menuthere), and add a short allergen statement to your menu so customers know to ask staff.

Put a QR menu on every table, with allergens shown on each dish, and take orders with 0% commission. or start with a.

Create your free ordering pagefree QR code menu