Food Safety Records in Belgium: Laws, FAVV Inspections and the Food Hygiene Rating

Belgian food safety records explained: the law, FAVV inspections, the Food Hygiene Rating, records inspectors ask for, common failures and digital records.

2026-10-31 · Chef Hygiene

Do food businesses in Belgium need food safety records? Yes. Every food business in Belgium, except primary production, must have a self-checking system (autocontrole) based on HACCP principles and good hygiene practice. The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV in Dutch, AFSCA in French) inspects restaurants, takeaways and similar businesses across the whole country, and inspection results are public in the Food Hygiene Rating. This page explains the Belgian rules, what inspectors look for, where businesses go wrong, and how digital records help.

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Every fact below comes from an official source, linked in the text and at the end. Where the law sets no number and a number comes from an FAVV guide, we say so. Belgium has three official languages. Chef Hygiene works in Dutch, French and German (and 37 other languages), so staff in Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking east can each use it in their own language.

## Contents

The law: what every Belgian food business must do
Who inspects you, and how often
The Food Hygiene Rating
The records inspectors ask for
Where businesses go wrong
By type of business
Why digital records help in Belgium
How Chef Hygiene helps
A fair price, on purpose
Less paper
FAQ
Official sources

## 1. The law: what every Belgian food business must do

The main laws. EU Regulation 852/2004 on food hygiene; the royal decree of 13 July 2014 on food hygiene (as changed in 2024); and the royal decree of 14 November 2003 on self-checking (autocontrole). The FAVV enforces them (royal decree of 13 July 2014, consolidated).
Register or get authorised first. The first step is to enrol in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (BCE number). The second step is to send the FAVV registration and authorisation request form to your local control unit (ULC). Low-risk activities need only registration; other activities need authorisation. For example, a bed and breakfast serving breakfast only needs registration, while one serving full board needs authorisation (FAVV bed and breakfast brochure). Once authorised, you must display the FAVV authorisation attestation so it can be seen from outside.
A self-checking system based on HACCP. Every food business except primary production needs one. Small businesses can use the relaxations in the FAVV generic guide G-044 (version 2, 25 October 2024), and the FAVV hospitality guide G-023 covers restaurants and cafés. These guides are official guidance, not law (FAVV guide G-044).
Temperatures: law first. The royal decree of 13 July 2014 sets these limits:
Chilled red meat, meat products, potato, vegetable, rice and pasta dishes, dairy and cream desserts: 7°C or colder (Annex IV).
Chilled raw poultry, offal, minced meat, meat preparations and processed fish: 4°C or colder. A mixed dish follows its strictest ingredient.
Fresh fish: near melting ice, at most 4°C. A short rise of up to 3°C while handling is allowed for other food, never for fresh fish.
Frozen food: -18°C or colder, with a short rise to -15°C allowed (art. 22/1).
Hot food kept hot: 60°C or hotter (art. 23 §1).
Cooling: from 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours at most (art. 23 §2).
Reheating: as quickly as possible to 60°C or hotter (art. 23 §1).
Every cold unit needs a thermometer accurate to 1°C (art. 21).
Temperatures: guide numbers. Belgian law sets no core cooking temperature. Guide G-023 says "well heated" means at least 2 minutes at 70°C in the centre. G-023 also says reheating should take food from 10°C to 60°C in under 1 hour, to be eaten the same day, and that cooled dishes are kept 3 to 4 days at most, labelled with the dish, the cooling date and the use-by date. G-044 says food held at 55 to 60°C must be reheated at once, and food below 55°C is thrown away. These are guidance.
Staff training. Belgian law sets no food hygiene certificate, number of hours or renewal. Staff must be supervised and trained to suit their work (Regulation 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter XII). The FAVV hospitality checklist asks for at least a short training when someone is hired and a regular reminder, and you must be able to prove it.
Staff who are ill. Staff who are ill or carry germs that can contaminate food, such as gastro-enteritis or diarrhoea, must tell the person in charge, and measures follow a medical examination (G-044). Cuts must be dressed at once. The medical certificate for food handlers was abolished on 11 August 2018.
Allergens. The 14 EU allergens must be declared (Regulation 1169/2011). For food that is not prepacked, the royal decree of 17 July 2014 applies. See section 4 and the FAQ.

## 2. Who inspects you, and how often

One federal agency. The FAVV (AFSCA in French) inspects food businesses in the whole country through its provincial control units. It works in Dutch, French, German and English.
Risk-based. Inspections follow risk, and the FAVV sets a frequency for each activity. We could not confirm a fixed visit schedule for restaurants, so we do not give one.
What can happen. An unfavourable result can bring a warning or an official report (proces-verbaal), then a re-inspection. If public health is at serious risk, the FAVV can order temporary closure. Non-compliant food is seized.

## 3. The Food Hygiene Rating

A public rating. Belgium has the Food Hygiene Rating at fhr.favv-afsca.be, as a website and an app, public since 4 November 2025. It covers food service and retail businesses such as restaurants, chip shops, sandwich shops, bakers, butchers, grocers and supermarkets.
Six classes.
Excellent: a Smiley or a certified self-checking system for all consumer activities.
Very good: a validated self-checking system, or a favourable result at the latest inspection.
Good: an unfavourable latest result with no re-inspection needed, or problems put right at re-inspection.
Satisfactory: a preliminary rating after an unfavourable result with a warning, while a re-inspection is pending.
To be improved: a preliminary rating after an unfavourable result with an official report, or an unfavourable re-inspection.
No recent inspection: not yet inspected, or results being processed.
Display is not required. You do not have to display your result. You must display the FAVV authorisation poster, visible from outside.

## 4. The records inspectors ask for

Self-checking records. Check fridges and freezers every day and write the temperatures down (G-023 and G-044 guidance).
Deliveries. Check chilled food against the Annex IV limits, frozen food at -18°C (maximum -15°C), and hot food at 60°C or more (G-044).
Cooking, cooling and reheating where you do them.
Cleaning records and what you did about problems.
Pest control reports.
Training log. Keep proof of short training at hiring and regular reminders.
Traceability. Where food came from.
Allergen information for every dish.

Allergens in detail (loose food). The FAVV Q&A on allergens says both written and spoken information are allowed.

Written information must be easy to read at the place of sale, before buying.
Spoken information is allowed only on these conditions: it is available at once at the point of sale before the sale closes; a written procedure exists on site and is accessible to staff and the FAVV; staff are trained; and it is free.
Always show a clear written notice that says where to find or ask for allergen information and that recipes can change. With several sale points in one building, put the notice at each place.
Who: every operator selling loose food to the final consumer, such as a supermarket, butcher, bakery, grocer, caterer, restaurant or childcare (FAVV allergen Q&A).
Phone orders (for example pizza): the person taking the order must be able to say which allergens a dish has before the customer chooses.

How long to keep records. With the small-business relaxations, keep self-checking records 6 months after the product's shelf life; otherwise keep them 2 years. Keep traceability records 2 years. These periods come from guide G-044.

## 5. Where businesses go wrong

Gaps. Days with no temperatures written down.
No action recorded. A reading out of range with nothing written about what was done.
Lost or damaged pages. Paper gets wet, greasy or thrown away.
Training not shown. Staff were trained, but nothing proves it.
Allergens by word of mouth with no procedure. Spoken information needs a written procedure, trained staff and a notice.
No notice. The allergen notice must always be visible.
Poster missing. The FAVV authorisation attestation must be visible from outside.
Wrong limits. Using 7°C for raw poultry, minced meat or fish, which need 4°C.

## 6. By type of business

The core rules are the same for every food business, but the records you keep depend on what you do.

Restaurant: daily checks, hot holding at 60°C or more, cooling within 2 hours, deliveries, cleaning, and allergen information. Guide G-023 is written for hospitality.
Takeaway: the same as a restaurant, plus the person taking phone orders must be able to say the allergens before the customer chooses.
Café: fridges and displays, cleaning, and allergen information for sandwiches and salads. Guide G-023 covers cafés.
Bakery: allergen information for every product, display temperatures for cream desserts (7°C or colder), and traceability of ingredients.
Dessert shop: fridge and freezer temperatures for desserts and ice cream, and allergens for toppings and sauces.
Pub / bar / club: the same records as a restaurant for the food you serve, with allergen information for every dish. We did not find a separate official pub rule.
Community hall / venue: if you serve food as a business, register with the FAVV; keep temperature and cleaning records for each event. We did not find an official rule just for halls.
Corner shop / grocery: fridge and freezer checks, delivery checks, and allergen information for loose food.
School / nursery kitchen: temperature and cleaning records and careful allergen records. For large kitchens, the FAVV says school meal allergen information may go on the menu or on standard tick-box forms. The FAVV also has a school brochure; we could not read it, so ask your control unit.
Caterer / food van: the allergen rules cover caterers. We could not confirm a separate official route for vans, so ask your local control unit.
Home kitchen business: we could not confirm a separate official rule for home kitchens. If you sell food to others, contact your local control unit about registration.

## 7. Why digital records help in Belgium

Accepted in the EU. The European Commission's guidance on HACCP flexibility (notice 2022/C 355/01) supports records in the form that suits the business. We could not find an FAVV page that says so directly, so ask your control unit if you are unsure.
No gaps go unnoticed. A missed daily temperature check shows up the same day.
Problems come with their fix. When a reading is out of range, the record asks what you did about it.
Ready for the inspector. You can show everything at once.
Every staff member can take part. Staff can record checks on a phone or tablet in Dutch, French, German or their own language.

## 8. How Chef Hygiene helps

Chef Hygiene follows the Belgian rules and FAVV guides. What it does:

Daily checks for fridges, freezers, cooking, hot holding, cooling, cleaning and deliveries, with the time, the staff member's name and photos. Saved records cannot be changed; corrections are added as new records.
Your country's rules built in, such as the Belgian temperature limits.
Food safety plan. About 20 minutes: answer questions, check each method, sign it, set a review date and print it. Earlier versions are kept.
Ready for inspection? Checks your last 4 weeks of records the way an inspector would and shows how many are ready.
Inspector's visits log. Write down each visit: date, type and officer.
Practice inspection. A free walk round of about 10 minutes, with questions for your type of business, showing a likely result in the Belgian Food Hygiene Rating classes, and a "Put it right" list.
Allergen chart and labels. Every dish against the 14 allergens, a staff view on the kitchen tablet, and labels.
Staff training records.
Inspector pack. Print all your records as one pack, or share them by secure link.
40 languages, including Dutch, French and German.

## 9. A fair price, on purpose

Chef Hygiene costs €2.99 a month per site (€1.99 for bakeries, dessert shops and corner shops); the exact price is shown in your app store; unlimited staff, no contract, 14-day free trial.

We keep the price low on purpose. We want as many food businesses as possible, from a single food van to a busy restaurant, to keep good records and pass inspections.

## 10. Less paper

A paper diary means printed sheets every day. One daily sheet per kitchen is 365 sheets a year, before you count delivery forms, cleaning rotas and training records. Digital records mean no record books to buy and fewer printed forms to throw away. That is less paper and nothing to store in a back office.

## 11. FAQ

### Do I legally need food safety records in Belgium?

Yes. Every food business except primary production needs a self-checking system based on HACCP principles (royal decree of 14 November 2003).

### Who inspects restaurants in Belgium?

The FAVV (AFSCA), one federal agency, through its provincial control units.

### How do I register a food business?

Enrol in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (BCE), then send the FAVV registration and authorisation request form to your local control unit (ULC).

### Registration or authorisation: which do I need?

Low-risk activities need registration; others need authorisation. A bed and breakfast serving breakfast only needs registration; with full board it needs authorisation. Ask your control unit for your activity.

### Do I have to display anything?

Yes, the FAVV authorisation attestation, visible from outside. You do not have to display your rating.

### Is there a hygiene rating in Belgium?

Yes. The Food Hygiene Rating (fhr.favv-afsca.be), public since 4 November 2025, with six classes from Excellent to To be improved, plus No recent inspection.

### Do I have to show my rating at the door?

No. Display is not required.

### What happens after an unfavourable inspection?

A warning or an official report (proces-verbaal), then a re-inspection. Serious risk to public health can lead to temporary closure.

### Are digital food safety records accepted?

EU guidance supports records in a form that suits the business. We could not find an FAVV page that says so directly, so ask your control unit if you are unsure.

### How long must I keep my records?

Guide G-044: self-checking records 6 months after shelf life with the small-business relaxations, or 2 years otherwise; traceability records 2 years.

### What temperature must my fridge be?

Law: 7°C or colder for most chilled food, and 4°C or colder for raw poultry, offal, minced meat, meat preparations and fish.

### What temperature must hot food be kept at?

60°C or hotter (royal decree of 13 July 2014, art. 23).

### How fast must I cool food?

From 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours at most.

### What temperature should I cook food to?

Belgian law sets none. Guide G-023 says "well heated" means at least 2 minutes at 70°C in the centre.

### Do my staff need a food hygiene certificate?

No law requires one. Staff must be supervised and trained for their work, and you must be able to prove it.

### Can I give allergen information by speaking?

Yes, if it is given at once and free of charge, a written procedure exists at the point of sale, staff are trained, and a clear written notice is shown.

### Do I need an allergen notice?

Yes, always: it says where to find or ask for allergen information and that recipes can change.

### What about phone orders?

The person taking the order must be able to say the allergens in a dish before the customer chooses.

### Can staff work when they are ill?

Staff with gastro-enteritis or diarrhoea must tell the person in charge, and measures follow a medical examination (G-044).

### How much does Chef Hygiene cost in Belgium?

€2.99 a month per site (€1.99 for bakeries, dessert shops and corner shops); the exact price is shown in your app store; unlimited staff, no contract, 14-day free trial.

## 12. Official sources

Chef Hygiene keeps your Belgian food safety records ready for every inspection:

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

Get it from Microsoft

Use it in your browser