How to start a catering business in 8 steps

Love food? Love hospitality? Starting a catering business could be for you.

If you dream of creating show-stopping wedding feasts, delivering corporate lunches, or running a mobile catering van at festivals and events, there’s a huge opportunity to build a successful catering business in the UK right now. 

The catering industry is booming. In fact, sales at the UK’s leading caterers jumped by 12.2% by the end of 2025. Demand for great caterers is there and for first-time founders starting a food catering business offers many benefits beyond profit. 

There’s flexibility, opportunity to scale, and the chance to tailor your business to your life and skills. But how do you get started? Well, it’s pretty straightforward.

We’re here to walk you through each step so you can make your culinary dreams a reality. Let’s do this.

In this article:

• What types of catering businesses are there?
• How to start a catering business in the UK
• How much does it cost to start a catering business?
• How can I reduce my startup costs?
• What insurance do I need for a catering business?
• What licences do I need for my catering business?
• Food safety requirements
• Your catering company

The catering world is wonderfully diverse and there are different business models to suit your skills, budget, and lifestyle. 

Understanding the main types of catering models can help you work out what type of business best aligns with your life and business goals. Let’s look at the pros and cons now. 

Type of catering business	What it involves	Pros	Cons
Home-based catering	Preparing food in your home kitchen for delivery or collection	Lowest startup costs, work from home, test your concept with minimal investment, flexible hours	Limited opportunity to grow scale (home kitchens restrict volume), planning permission may be needed, harder to cater large events
Mobile catering	Operating from a van, trailer, or truck to serve food at various locations	Flexibility to go where customers are, presence at festivals and events, lower overheads than permanent premises	Weather-dependent income, vehicle costs and maintenance, pitch fees can be high, physically demanding, requires multiple licences for different areas
Full-service event catering	Providing complete catering packages for weddings, corporate events, parties — including food, staff, equipment, and setup	Higher profit margins, prestigious work, ability to create memorable experiences, good for building reputation	Requires significant equipment investment, needs transport, staff management, highly competitive, seasonal peaks and troughs
Corporate catering	Delivering buffets, lunches, or refreshments to businesses and offices	Repeat business and regular income, weekday work only, predictable orders, lower stress than events	Can be price–sensitive, menu can become repetitive, competition from established providers
Specialist/dietary catering	Focusing on specific dietary needs — vegan, gluten-free, kosher, halal, allergen-free	Less competition in niche markets, premium pricing possible; loyal customer base, growing demand	Requires deep knowledge of dietary requirements, stricter food safety considerations, smaller target market, specialist ingredients can be expensive
Institutional catering	Providing high-volume meal services for organisations like schools, hospitals, or prisons	Long-term stable contracts, guaranteed volume of covers, predictable schedule, high degree of financial security	Low profit margins per head, strict nutritional and budget constraints, heavy bureaucracy, requires large-scale industrial facilities

Did you know that many successful caterers combine elements of different models?  

For example: you could do home-based corporate lunch delivery during the week, and cater the occasional weekend events, too. 

You’re not boxed into one way of working. The key is understanding which model(s) best fit into your lifestyle, what you want to achieve with your catering business, and also how much money you need to start. More on that later. 

Let’s get into the practical steps for launching your dream catering business. It might look like a lot to figure out, but getting properly prepared is essential. Don’t worry, you’ll be serving your first customers before you know it.

Before you fire up the oven, spend some time researching your local market to find out where the real opportunities are. You could start by looking at your area to find out what types of catering businesses already exist. Perhaps there’s a huge amount of traditional wedding catering, but nobody’s offering authentic street food for corporate events. Or perhaps there’s demand for specialist dietary catering that’s not being met.

Make a spreadsheet that details:

• These other caterers in your area  
• Their websites and social media
• Their customer reviews 

This should help you organise and understand what they offer, and see potential gaps in the market. 

Talking to people is incredibly helpful, too. For example, if you’re considering corporate catering, reach out to local businesses to ask what their current catering arrangements are and whether they’re happy with them.

Or if you’re thinking about event catering, speak to wedding planners, venue managers, and people who’ve recently hosted events about their catering experiences.

Finally, consider your own skills, practical constraints, and interests. Be honest with yourself here. 

• What are you genuinely passionate about cooking? 
• What can you do better than most people? 
• If you’re starting from home, do you have the space? 
• Do you have access to a van? Perhaps a mobile catering business is a good fit

The sweet spot is where your passion and skills meet genuine market demand. 

While you might be incredibly talented at cooking French cuisine, if your market wants simple and affordable buffets, it’s perhaps not worth pushing filet mignon on them — yet. Consider how you can meet demand while still being passionate about your work and your food. 

You might think business plans are just for big businesses. But we’re here to tell you that every business needs a plan. 

Creating a plan makes you think through every aspect of your business and helps you spot any issues, big or small, before you get started. Think of it as your roadmap for the first year or two of trading.

So, what needs to go into your business plan? 

We’ve created a handy checklist of what to include. You can also download our free business plan template — it’s designed for first-time founders like you and is packed with helpful tips and advice. 

• Executive summary: an overview of your catering business and your goals 
• Your skills and experience: explain why you’re the best person to run this catering business and what you bring to the table that’ll make your business special
• The market: includes a detailed market analysis covering your target customers, competitors, and the size of the opportunity. Being specific about who you’re targeting — for example, corporate clients within 10 miles who regularly need high-quality buffet lunches for 20–50 people, is nice and focused
• Products and services: detail your catering concept, your menu and explain your prices. Your pricing needs to cover ingredients, preparation time, and overheads whilst remaining competitive and attractive to customers 
• Sales and marketing: include a marketing plan explaining how you’ll connect with potential customers, retain real customers, and ultimately stand out from other caterers. What social channels will you use? Will you approach businesses directly? How can people book your services? 
• Operations: this is what your business looks like day-to-day, including details of where you’ll prep food, equipment, staff,  business licences, and locations
• Financial forecast: create a cash flow forecast for the first 12 months. Estimate your startup costs, monthly overheads, and realistic revenue. See if you can work out your break-even point: the number of events or meals you need to sell each month to cover your costs.

Having a clear plan for getting your first 10–20 customers through the door should make your new venture feel much more achievable.

Your business name needs to work hard for you. Ideally, it should give your potential customers an immediate sense of what you do. It can be fun and playful (who doesn’t love a pun?), but remember to keep it professional.

Catering business names that work well often include what you do, reference your speciality, or can even include your location. This helps people find you when searching on Google. 

Think: Delicious London Party Catering, The Corporate Lunch Co, Preston’s Plant Powered Catering, and Fresh Kitchen Catering.

Try to avoid anything too clever, obscure or abstract. As a general rule, if your name requires explanation, you’ve probably gone too far. Also, think about how your name will look on your van if you’re doing mobile catering, or on your business cards and packaging. 

Before you fall in love with a name, check it’s available. Use our company name availability checker to make sure nobody else has registered it on Companies House. Also, be sure to check social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to make sure you can get matching handles for brand consistency. 

Now that you have a business name, you need to choose your business structure. Your two main options are: sole trader or limited company. 

Both structures have advantages and disadvantages, depending on your circumstances — let’s weigh it all up.

Sole trader: pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Easy to set up: zero cost. You just need to register for self-assessment with HMRC	Unlimited liability: You and the business are one legal entity. If the business fails, your personal assets (like your house and car) are at risk
Total privacy: your earnings and accounts are private between you and HMRC. They aren’t on public record.	Harder to raise cash: banks and investors generally prefer lending to limited companies
Keep all profits (after tax): there’s no additional taxes after income tax (except VAT)	Less tax efficient: once you earn over £30k–£50k, you usually pay more in tax and NI than a limited company would
Simple admin: fewer filing deadlines and lower accountancy fees	Perception: big corporate clients or government agencies often won’t work with sole traders

Limited company: pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Limited liability: your personal assets are protected. If the company goes bust, your loss is limited to what you invested	More paperwork: you must register your company with Companies House, file annual accounts, a confirmation statement, and a corporation tax return
Tax flexibility: you can pay yourself a mix of low salary and dividends to reduce your overall tax bill	Public records: your business address, director details, and summary accounts are visible to anyone on the Companies House website
Professional image: having Ltd after your name gives immediate credibility and can help win larger contracts	Higher costs: you may need an accountant (having a dedicated business current account is a big help though)
Easier to scale: you can bring in partners or investors by issuing new shares.	Strict rules: you cannot withdraw cash whenever you want. It must be recorded in your books as a salary, dividend, or loan

For most people starting a catering business, a limited company makes sense for the limited liability protection it offers.  That’s because they aren’t personally at risk when taking on debt, for instance, if they’re investing in certain equipment. 

If you’re just dipping your toe in the water with a small home-based operation, sole trader status keeps things simpler initially. You can always incorporate later when your business grows. 

Once you’ve decided on your structure, it’s time to take the next very exciting step: making your business official! If you’re going down the sole trader route:

• You need to register with HMRC for self-assessment
• You can do this online for free
• You’ll need to file a tax return each year, declaring your income and expenses

If you’re going down the limited company route:

• You need to register your company with Companies House
• You can do this yourself (there’s a £100 Companies House fee) or let an official company formation agent like Countingup handle your company registration for you for free
• You’ll need your chosen company name, at least one director (that’s you), at least one shareholder (also usually you for a one-person business), and a registered office address (can be your home address)

Good to know: If you decide to set up a limited company, you’re legally required to open a dedicated business current account so your business and personal finances are separate. But it’s a good idea to open a business account if you’re a sole trader too. It makes accounting and taxes easier and looks more professional to customers.

Running a food business comes with legal requirements — there’s no way around these. They’re there to protect you, your business, and your customers. 

The specific requirements you need to follow vary depending on your catering business model, but here are the essentials everyone needs to know about. We’ll cover licences in more detail a bit later. 

• You must register your food business with your local council’s environmental health department at least 28 days before you start trading. Registration is free and applies whether you’re cooking from home, a commercial kitchen, or a mobile unit
• At least one person in your business (usually you) needs a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene certificate. This is a basic qualification covering food safety principles, hazards, and hygiene practices. You can complete the course online in a few hours.
• For mobile catering, you’ll likely need street trading licences from each local council where you plan to operate. Requirements vary by council, so check with every council where you intend to trade and budget for these fees 
• If you’re working from home, check whether you need planning permission to run a business from your property. If you’re just doing occasional catering with no customers visiting your home, and no disturbance to neighbours, you’re probably fine. But if you’re operating at a commercial scale with deliveries, staff coming and going, or customers collecting orders, you likely need permission

Getting the right business catering equipment means you can run your business efficiently and safely. What you need depends on your unique offering, but these are the general bits you should bear in mind:

Food preparation
You’ll need commercial-quality equipment even if you’re working from home — domestic equipment won’t be able to handle the volume of professional catering. This includes:

• Proper chef’s knives
• Commercial-grade chopping boards (colour-coded for different food types)
• Stainless steel prep containers
• Commercial mixers if you’re doing baking
• Food processors
• Adequate workspace

Make sure you have enough refrigeration — fridges fill up fast when you’re catering for 50 people (or more)!

Food insulation equipment 
The general rules you need to follow are:

• Hot food needs to stay above 63°C
• Cold food needs to stay below 8°C

Invest in proper insulated food carriers, hot boxes, or cool boxes  — the amount you need depends on your menu and your customer bookings. 

Events equipment 
You’ll need serving equipment to keep dishes hot and looking good and to stay organised. Consider:

• Serving plates and platters 
• Utensils — from ladles to dessert slicers 
• Heat plates
• Disposable plates, cutlery, and napkins (depending on the event) 

For mobile catering
Whether you use a van, trailer, or truck, it needs to be properly equipped with at least the following:

• Cooking equipment
• Refrigeration
• Handwashing facilities
• Storage
• Fire extinguisher (important for mobile catering)

Of course, the specific equipment your van needs depends on your menu. For example, a burger van needs different equipment to a coffee cart or a pizza truck. Make sure your equipment is food-safe, and your vehicle meets environmental health requirements.

Cleaning and safety equipment
Hygiene is very important in this business. You need a wide range of cleaning products like:

• Sanitisers
• Cloths for different tasks
• First aid kit
• Thermometers for checking food temperatures

If you’re planning to employ staff, make sure they’re properly trained in food hygiene and know your procedures. 

Many caterers start solo and bring in casual help for larger events, which keeps costs down whilst giving you flexibility. But just make sure anyone handling your food is trained.

Now it’s time to start taking bookings and serving customers. 

Your first few jobs will be a learning experience. Remember: it’s OK if things go wrong. Don’t be discouraged — every successful catering business has been through the same challenges.

To help make your launch as smooth as possible, consider: 

• Targeting smaller events while you’re finding your feet. A corporate lunch for 20 people or a birthday party for 30 is much less stressful than a wedding for 150 when you’re just starting out
• Showcasing your food on social media straight away — people eat with their eyes first, so take the time to make your dishes look as good as they taste
• Asking every satisfied customer to submit a review on Google, Facebook, or on industry platforms like ToGather 
• Networking relentlessly with people who can refer business your way. Venue managers, wedding planners, corporate event organisers, and other suppliers in the events industry are a great source of referrals — you could even offer them a discount as an incentive 

Most importantly, be open to learning and improving. After each event, think honestly about what went well and what could be better. 

• Did you have enough of a particular dish? 
• Was the timing right? 
• What feedback did customers give?

Use every job as an opportunity to refine your processes, recipes, and service. And try not to let mistakes knock your confidence. You’ll more than likely doing a great job.

This very much depends on the type of catering company you want to start. Let’s look at a breakdown of your expected costs for each model. 

Home-based catering
This is the cheapest option if your home kitchen already has decent enough equipment. Your main costs will be:

• Food hygiene registration and training: £0–£50 (registration is free, Level 2 Food Safety courses start from about £15)
• Additional kitchen equipment: £500–£2,000 (if you need to buy commercial-quality knives, prep containers, extra refrigeration, thermometers, etc.)
• Transport equipment: £200–£800 (like insulated carriers, hot boxes, and cool boxes)
• Insurance: £300–£600 annually (public liability and product liability)
• Initial stock and packaging: £200–£500
• Marketing materials: £100–£300 (business cards, website, and social media setup)
• Miscellaneous: £200–£500 (like cleaning supplies and safety equipment)

Total for home-based catering: £1,500–£5,000

Mobile catering
This business model is a lot more expensive than home catering because you need a vehicle and all the equipment to operate from it:

• Vehicle (van, trailer, or truck): £5,000–£40,000 depending on whether you buy used or new, trailer or full truck
• Fit-out and equipment: £3,000–£15,000 (this includes cooking equipment, refrigeration, sinks, gas systems, generator and extraction fans)
• Licences and permits: £500–£3,000 (check if you need any specific street trading or premises licences)
• Insurance: £1,500–£3,000 annually (this could include vehicle, public liability, equipment, employer’s liability if you have staff)
• Initial stock and supplies: £500–£1,500
• Branding and signage (your van needs to look the part!): £500–£2,000
• Working capital: £2,000–£5,000 (to cover costs before your revenue becomes consistent)
• Miscellaneous: £200–£500 (like cleaning supplies and safety equipment)

Total for mobile catering: £15,000–£50,000+

Full-service event catering
This business model sits somewhere between home catering and mobile catering — depending on the scale of your operation. 

• Commercial kitchen rental: £200–£1,000+ per month (many caterers share kitchen space to keep costs down)
• Equipment: £3,000–£10,000 (commercial cooking equipment, serving equipment, chafing dishes, and tableware)
• Transport: £2,000–£15,000 (this includes a van for transporting food and equipment)
• Licences and insurance: £800–£2,000 initially
• Initial stock and supplies: £500–£2,000
• Marketing: £500–£1,500
• Working capital: £3,000–£5,000 (to cover costs before revenue becomes consistent)
• Miscellaneous: £200–£500 (like cleaning supplies and safety equipment)

Total for event catering: £10,000–£35,000

Beyond startup costs, you need to factor in monthly overheads too. 

• For home-based catering, this might be £500–£1,500 per month (ingredients, packaging, transport, insurance, and marketing)
• For mobile catering, expect £2,000–£4,000+ monthly (ingredients, pitch fees, fuel, maintenance, and insurance)
• For full-service catering, monthly costs typically run £2,500–£5,000+ (kitchen rental, ingredients, transport, insurance, staff costs if you employ people)

With an average profit margin of between 7% to 8%, catering offers a good level of profitability in the UK. 

But there isn’t one type of catering business that generally offers more success than the others — how successful you are depends on your location, skills, cost management, marketing and how you operate. 

However, some general patterns and opportunities emerge when you look at the industry as a whole. 

Specialist dietary catering
You can often charge more for vegan, gluten-free, allergen-free, kosher and halal catering options. 

There’s less competition in these areas, and customers are willing to pay more for food that meets their dietary needs. For example:

• Standard buffet catering price: £10–25 per person
• Vegan/vegetarian buffet catering price: £15–£40 per person

If you can become known as the go-to local caterer for excellent vegan wedding food or safe allergen-free corporate catering, you can charge 20–30% more than general caterers.

High-end event catering 
Weddings, corporate functions, and private parties typically offer higher profit margins than volume-based corporate lunch delivery. 

Let’s look at weddings first. Generally, wedding catering prices fall into these pricing categories:

• Affordable – £20 – £40 per head
• Moderate – £40 – £60 per head
• Luxury – £60 – £80 per head
• Super luxury – £80+ per head

On average, for a 40-guest wedding, you could expect to charge around £3,000 and for a 160-guest wedding, you could charge around £11,000.

Even mid-range wedding catering presents good profit opportunities. But higher-end weddings are where the bigger profit margins — often up to 20% per wedding — can be found. Usually, that’s because you’re serving premium ingredients with a larger price tag. 

But one thing to bear in mind is that weddings are more competitive and demand can be seasonal. 

On the other hand, corporate catering tends to have lower margins of around 10–15% but offers more consistent income. 

Here are the average prices for office catering, business events, and team lunches:

• Sandwich platters: £5 – £10 per person
• Hot food options: £10 – £20 per person
• Full-service catering: £20 – £50 per person

If you can secure contracts or get customers onto a subscription for weekly lunch deliveries, you’ve got predictable revenue that makes financial planning much easier and adds up over time.

Mobile catering 
Festivals and markets can be incredibly lucrative. But they’re competitive, too. 

To win a pitch at Glastonbury, you’re often competing with about 3000 other food businesses. Pitch prices for events range from £300 to over £10,000 — not cheap!

There are other costs to factor in, too. Event organisers usually ask for a percentage of your overall gross sales. For big festivals, this fee can be around 10-15% of your sales. But it can be up to 30%.

That said, for a busy festival day, you can expect to make £2,000–£5,000+ with good margins if you’re selling street food at £8–£12 per serving. You’ve got a captive audience and while there are usually lots of other vendors to compete with, here’s where having a great menu, good physical marketing, and streamlined operations that minimise queuing really play in your favour.

However, you’ll also have slower and weather-dependent days to manage and prepare for. 

Ultimately, the most profitable catering businesses tend to share these characteristics: 

• A clear niche rather (not trying to be everything to everyone)
• Excellent systems that minimise waste and maximise efficiency
• Strong reputation that allows premium pricing
• Recurring revenue through regular clients 

In reality, profitability comes more from how well you run your catering business. Not which type of catering you choose.

Here are a few practical ways to help keep your initial costs under control:

If you’re doing event catering or corporate delivery, consider starting from your home kitchen rather than immediately renting commercial kitchen space. 

You may find that you’ll be pushed for space, but starting from home lets you test your concept, build a client base, and generate revenue before committing to higher overheads. 

Lots of successful catering companies start this way: working from home for the first 6–12 months and then moving to commercial premises once the additional cost is justifiable.

Once you’re consistently turning down work because you’ve maxed out the space in your home kitchen, it’s generally the right time to look at commercial space.

Commercial catering equipment is expensive when new, but it’s often available for a lot cheaper second-hand. 

Restaurants close down regularly. Their equipment often ends up at auction or on sites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Take a look and see if you can pick up commercial-grade ovens, fridges, mixers, and other equipment for less. 

If you do find a bargain, the savings can be significant. For example, a commercial mixer might cost £800 new but only £300–£400 used. A commercial fridge could be £1,500 new or £600 used.

Also, for equipment you’ll only use occasionally, consider renting rather than buying. These rental costs will come out of your budget for the event, rather than your startup costs.

Resist the temptation to launch with every bell and whistle. 

Start your catering business with what you can manage solo or with minimal help. Use the time to perfect your systems and recipes, build your reputation, and reinvest profits to grow gradually.

Many caterers start with one type of service, like corporate lunch delivery, and expand into others, like events, once established and profitable. This staged approach means you’re not spreading yourself too thin or spending all your startup funds before you’ve proven your concept. 

Also, focus your early marketing on low-cost activities. Use social media, word-of-mouth, and networking before spending money on advertising. 

Sharing kitchen space is common in this industry. 

You might use a commercial kitchen in the mornings, and another caterer uses it in the afternoons. Splitting the rent is cost-effective, and you get to share equipment, too. 

Transport can also be shared. If you’re doing smaller events, you might not need your own refrigerated van full-time. Some caterers share vehicles or use refrigerated courier services for deliveries, only hiring or buying their own transport once the volume justifies it.

Staff sharing is another option. Sharing a pool of reliable casual staff means you all have access to trained, experienced people without needing permanent employees.

If you’re going to start a catering business, you must get insurance. The potential risks are simply too high to operate without appropriate cover. 

Here’s a breakdown of what insurance you’ll definitely need and what other policies you should seriously consider:

Public liability insurance
Level: Essential 

Many venues, clients, and event organisers will ask to see proof of public liability insurance before letting you cater. 

It covers you if a customer or member of the public is injured or becomes ill as a result of your business. For example, if someone slips on some spilled food at your event, has an allergic reaction to your food despite being told it was allergen-free, or suffers food poisoning.

In these cases, public liability covers your legal costs and compensation claims. Policies typically provide £1 million to £5 million cover and can cost anywhere from £150–£400 per year. You should get this before you serve your first customer. 

Product liability insurance 
Level: Essential 

This insurance specifically covers claims related to the food and drink you provide. If your food causes illness, allergic reactions, or any harm to consumers, product liability protects you. 

Given how serious food safety issues can be and how expensive legal claims can become, this is essential for every catering business. Many insurers bundle product liability with public liability, but double-check it’s definitely included.

Employer’s liability insurance 
Level: Legal requirement (if you employ anyone)

If you hire full-time, casual or part-time staff, you need employer’s liability insurance. This covers you if an employee is injured while working for your business. Perhaps they slip, cut themselves on a knife, get burned by hot oil or get an injury from carrying heavy equipment. Policies typically cost between £100–£300 per year, depending on how many staff you have.

Commercial vehicle insurance
Level: Essential if you’re using a vehicle

Standard car insurance doesn’t cover commercial vehicle use. If you’re driving to events or operating a mobile catering unit, you should get commercial vehicle insurance. 

Expect to pay £800–£2,000+ per year, but this depends on your vehicle value, what equipment you’re carrying, and your driving history. Shop around, as you may be able to find a good deal.

Equipment and contents insurance
Level: Highly recommended

This insurance protects your cooking equipment, serving equipment, and stock. If there’s a fire, theft, flood, or vandalism, you’ll rely on this insurance to replace everything you lost without spending more money. This is especially important for mobile caterers because you might have very expensive equipment in a vehicle that could be stolen or involved in an accident.

Business interruption insurance 
Level: Recommended 

If you can’t trade due to an insured event, like your kitchen floods, or you’re ill and unable to work, business interruption insurance covers your lost income. 

For caterers who rely on bookings made weeks or months in advance, being unable to fulfil commitments could mean refunding deposits and losing huge amounts of planned income. If anything like this should happen, you’ll be glad to have business interruption cover.

Professional indemnity insurance 
Level: Worth considering (once you grow)

Imagine if a customer claims you gave them bad advice or made mistakes that cost them money. Perhaps you told them their event menu was suitable for all dietary requirements, but someone had a severe allergic reaction. Or your advice on quantities was wrong, and they ran out of food, which meant people went hungry. 

Professional indemnity insurance covers you if these things happen. It’s less common for small caterers, but worth considering if you’re providing a level of consultancy alongside catering services.

Getting your licensing sorted helps to protect your business from fines, prosecution, or being shut down. Here’s what you need to know:

Food business registration

• Mandatory for everyone operating a food business in the UK
• You must register with your local council’s environmental health department at least 28 days before you start trading. 
• Here’s how to find your local council
• This registration is free, applies to all food businesses regardless of size, and covers basic food hygiene requirements

Your council’s environmental health team may inspect your premises to check whether your home kitchen, a commercial kitchen, or a mobile unit meets food safety standards.

What are they checking for? 

• Facilities for handwashing
• Refrigeration for safely storing ingredients
• Appropriate food storage that prevents cross-contamination
• Clean preparation surfaces
• Proper waste disposal. 

Even if you’re running your business from home, you still need to maintain excellent hygiene standards. You’ll also need to keep your personal food separate. 

Food hygiene certification 
This is required for at least one person in your business (usually you as the owner). Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene for Catering is the standard qualification for the catering industry and you can usually complete the course online in a few hours. 

Your local council might offer free or subsidised training — so it’s worth checking. 

If you employ staff, they need basic food hygiene training too. They don’t necessarily need the full Level 2 qualification (though it helps), but they must understand safe food handling, personal hygiene, and procedures that are specific to your business. 

Street trading licences 
These are required if you’re running a mobile catering business and trading from public land. Here’s what you need to know:

• Street trading licences vary by local council. You’ll need a licence even if you’re planning to set up in an “unorganised” spot, like a carpark. When in doubt, check
• You’ll need to check with every council where you plan to trade if you need a specific street trading licence 
• Licence costs range from £50–£100 in some areas to £1,000–£3,000+ per year in busy city centres or tourist hotspots
• Many markets and events handle licensing themselves, so you might not need separate street trading licences if you’re operating at organised events

Alcohol licensing
This licence is mandatory for any business selling or serving alcohol. There are different types of alcohol licenses available, and what you need depends on whether you’re selling from permanent or temporary premises, and whether you’re doing one-off events or regular sales.

• For caterers doing occasional events, a temporary event notice usually covers you. These cost £21 and allow you to serve alcohol at a specific venue
• If you’re regularly serving alcohol, you might need a premises licence. To apply for a premises licence, you need a designated premises supervisor with a personal licence to sell alcohol — this can be you. It also involves an application to your local council, and application fees range from £100 to £1,905 

For most caterers, it’s a bit easier to let customers handle alcohol licensing for their events — and often it’s handled by the venue. You could also consider partnering with a licensed bar service rather than getting your own alcohol licence.

Music licensing 
Getting a music licence is technically required if you’re also providing background music at events you’re catering. 

If you’re just providing food, the music licence is your client’s responsibility. But if you’re providing a complete package including music or entertainment, you’ll likely need licenses from the PRS PPL. 

However, many venues have their own licences that cover music played on their premises. But do check whose responsibility it is before your event.

Of course, food safety is absolutely critical in catering — your reputation, business, and customers’ health all depend on you (and your team) maintaining the highest standards. 

Here are the key requirements you need to follow.

• HACCP principles: These principles form the basis of food safety management in the UK. Your HACCP plan should identify critical control points — the stages where food safety could be compromised. For most caterers, these include: receiving deliveries, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, and transport. 

Find out more about HACCP and how its principles affect your setup 

• Temperature control: Cold food must be kept at 8°C or below, and hot food at 63°C or above. The danger zone between 8°C and 63°C is where bacteria multiply rapidly, so food shouldn’t spend long at these temperatures. Invest in good-quality food thermometers, check fridge temperatures daily, and monitor hot holding temperatures during service.

Learn more about temperature control and how to keep food safe. 

• Cross-contamination prevention: Use different coloured chopping boards for different food types: usually red for raw meat, blue for raw fish, yellow for cooked meats, green for vegetables, and white for dairy and bakery. Never use the same knife or board for raw meat and then cooked food without washing thoroughly in between. 

Discover these tips on how to avoid cross-contamination in your business 

• Personal hygiene: Always wash hands thoroughly before handling food, after touching raw meat, after going to the toilet, and after any break. Keep fingernails short and clean, tie long hair back, and cover any cuts or grazes with blue waterproof plasters. If you’re ill with sickness or diarrhoea, do not prepare food until at least 48 hours after symptoms stop. 

Learn how to keep you and your customers safe with excellent personal hygiene 

• Traceability: This means knowing where all your ingredients come from and when you bought them. Keep records of suppliers and purchase dates, use date labelling on all prepared foods, and operate a first-in, first-out system so older ingredients get used before newer deliveries.

Find more advice on how to use traceability in your catering business 

For detailed guidance on food safety requirements, the Food Standards Agency is a trusted and authoritative resource. They provide free guides for caterers, including food safety management packs. 

A further resource you can turn to is your local council’s environmental health team. If you reach out with questions, they should provide advice and guidance. After all, they want you to succeed and be safe,  rather than catch you out.

Yes, you absolutely can sell food from your home in the UK. Many successful catering businesses start this way. 

However, you need to follow certain rules and regulations:

You must register your home as a food business
You need to register with your local council at least 28 days before you start trading. Registration is free and applies to all food businesses, including home-based ones. 

Check whether you need planning permission 
If you’re running small–scale catering and no customers visit your property, and you have no employees, you probably won’t need planning permission to run a catering business from home. However, if you’re operating at a more commercial scale, you may need to apply for planning permission. 

Tell your mortgage provider or landlord
If you’re renting, check your tenancy agreement. Most landlords won’t allow you to run a business from the property without permission. 

If you own your home, but have a mortgage, check your mortgage terms. Most lenders are fine with small home-based businesses, but they might want to know about your business.

Register as self-employed
If you want to operate as a sole trader, you just have to tell HMRC that you’re self-employed and register for self-assessment. As your home business grows, you may consider converting your sole trader status into a limited company. 

Take some food safety courses
Your home kitchen needs to operate as safely as possible. Take some time to complete a few food safety courses so you understand the basics and where cross-contamination can occur. 

Set up your waste disposal
At some point, foodstuffs become former foodstuffs. Learn how to dispose of your kitchen waste responsibly. 

Create allergen labels and provide accurate information
This is incredibly important — you must learn about allergens and let people know if any are present in the food that you’re preparing at home. A lot of food has traces of allergens like gluten, nuts, and dairy, so take the time to learn about food allergens and label your food appropriately. 

The key to starting a successful catering business is getting the foundations right: company registration, business licensing, insurance, good food safety practices, and good financial management.

To help with your business finances, you could use a smart business current account to track what you spend, automate reports and get your business ready at tax time. 

Getting organised now takes the pressure off once you’re out there serving customers and growing your business — simply, it’s one less thing to manage. 

For more business guidance, why not head over to our resource hub? Here, you’ll find dedicated resources for first-time founders and tips on everything from tax returns to business expenses. 

Finally, remember that every successful caterer has experienced moments of doubt. But if you’re ready to take the leap, we’re cheering you on every step of the way.

Yes. Public liability insurance is essential and many clients and venues require proof before letting you cater. This covers you if someone is injured or becomes ill because of your business. Sometimes it comes combined with product liability insurance — make sure you check .Don’t start without it.

Yes, catering businesses can be very profitable with margins typically around 10–30%, depending on business type and your efficiency. High-end event catering and specialist dietary services often have better margins. Most caterers struggle initially but become comfortably profitable once established with regular clients.

You don’t need formal culinary qualifications. However, at least one person must have a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene certificate. Beyond this legally required qualification, no credentials are mandatory — many successful caterers are self-taught.

Catering works brilliantly as a side hustle, especially starting with weekend events whilst keeping your day job. Many successful businesses started this way. Home-based catering is particularly suitable for part-time operation with minimal overheads. However, be realistic — catering is physically demanding and time-intensive.

The four main types are: corporate catering (business events and office lunches), social event catering (weddings and private celebrations), mobile/outdoor catering (festivals and markets from vans or stalls), and institutional catering (schools, hospitals, care homes). Many caterers blend categories for flexibility.