Food Safety Records in Brazil: Laws and Inspections

Brazil food safety records explained: ANVISA RDC 216, VISA inspections, the records inspectors ask for, common failures and how digital records help.

2026-10-31 · Chef Hygiene

Do food businesses in Brazil need food safety records? Yes. ANVISA's Good Practices rule for food services (RDC 216/2004) says every food service must have a written Manual de Boas Práticas and written procedures (POPs), and must keep records for at least 30 days. The health surveillance (Vigilância Sanitária, VISA) of your city or state inspects you and issues your health licence. Brazil has no public hygiene rating. This page explains the Brazilian 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 a rule is set by your own city or state and we could not confirm it, we say so, and we do not guess. The app works in Portuguese.

The law: what every Brazilian food service must do
Who inspects you, and how often
No public rating, but real penalties
The records inspectors ask for
Where businesses go wrong
By type of business
Why digital records help in Brazil
How Chef Hygiene helps
A fair price, on purpose
Less paper
FAQ
Official sources

1. The law: what every Brazilian food service must do

The main rule. ANVISA, the national health surveillance agency, wrote RDC 216/2004, the Technical Regulation of Good Practices for Food Services. It is the federal minimum for restaurants, cafés, bakeries, snack bars and other food services (RDC 216/2004, Ministry of Health). The scope is set in RDC 52/2014. States and cities may add stricter rules.
A written Manual and 4 POPs. Food services must have a Manual de Boas Práticas and Procedimentos Operacionais Padronizados (POPs) (item 4.11.1). The 4 required POPs are:
cleaning of the premises, equipment and furniture;
integrated control of pests;
cleaning of the water tank;
hygiene and health of food handlers.
Not HACCP. HACCP is not required of food services under RDC 216. The Manual and POPs are the system. (RDC 275/2002 is a separate rule for food factories, not for restaurants, so we do not cover it here.)
A responsible person. The person responsible for food handling must be the owner or a named employee, and must be able to prove a course on food contaminants, foodborne illness, hygienic handling of food, and Good Practices (items 4.12.1 and 4.12.2). The rule sets no number of hours and no renewal period.
Staff training. Food handlers must be supervised and trained regularly in personal hygiene, hygienic handling and foodborne illness, and the training must be proven with documents (item 4.6.7).
Staff health. Staff who are ill or have wounds that could contaminate food must be kept away from food (RDC 216/2004, section 4.6). Workers also need an occupational health exam and certificate (ASO) under the labour rule NR-7: before starting, then every 2 years, or every year for staff exposed to work risks or with a chronic illness, as the company's occupational doctor sets (NR-7).
Temperatures in the law. Unlike many countries, Brazil's federal rule sets the numbers itself (RDC 216/2004, section 4.8):
Cooking: every part of the food must reach at least 70°C (item 4.8.8). A lower temperature is allowed only with a time and temperature shown to be safe.
Hot holding: above 60°C, for 6 hours at most (item 4.8.15).
Cooling: from 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours, then below 5°C, or frozen at -18°C or colder (item 4.8.16).
Chilled storage: prepared food kept at 4°C keeps 5 days at most (item 4.8.17). The pack must carry its name, the day it was made and its use-by date, and the storage temperature must be checked and recorded regularly (item 4.8.18).
Frying oil: heated to no more than 180°C (item 4.8.11).
Reheating: RDC 216 sets no separate number, so Chef Hygiene uses its general heat rule of at least 70°C in every part.
Allergens. For packaged food, RDC 727/2022 requires allergen warnings for 18 items: wheat, rye, barley and oats, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanut, soy, milk, almond, hazelnut, cashew, Brazil nut, macadamia, walnut, pecan, pistachio, pine nut, chestnut and natural latex (RDC 727/2022, Diário Oficial da União). Food packed in the shop that sells it, or packed at the customer's request, is exempt (art. 7, paragraph 2). We found no federal rule that makes a restaurant list allergens on its menu. Customers have the right to clear information on what is in their food (Consumer Defence Code, Lei 8.078/1990, art. 6).
Fire safety. Fire safety is each state's own law, checked by the state fire brigade (Corpo de Bombeiros). Ask your state fire brigade what your building needs.

2. Who inspects you, and how often

VISA. The Vigilância Sanitária of your city or state inspects food businesses and issues the local health licence (alvará sanitário or licença sanitária).
Which level? It varies by city. For example, the government of Minas Gerais says the licence for lower-risk activities is requested at the city's Vigilância Sanitária, and higher-risk activities go through the state (Minas Gerais government). Ask your own city which applies to you.
ANVISA. ANVISA writes the federal rule. The city or state applies it.
What inspectors check. The Manual and the 4 POPs, approved, dated and signed by the person responsible; the records; the temperatures; the responsible person's course; and the staff's training.
How often. We could not confirm an official fixed visit schedule, so we do not give one.

3. No public rating, but real penalties

No rating. Brazil has no national grade or score for restaurants.
Penalties. Breaking the rules is a sanitary offence under Lei 6.437/1977. The penalties include:
a warning;
seizure of food;
closing the business;
cancelling its licence;
a fine.
Fines. The law sets fines from R$ 2,000 for light offences, up to R$ 75,000 for serious ones, R$ 200,000 for more serious ones and R$ 1,500,000 for the most serious, doubled for a repeat offence. States and cities may also fine under their own health codes. We did not confirm those amounts.
What this means for you. There is no score to improve, but a closure or a fine is real. Good records show an inspector that your system works every day.

4. The records inspectors ask for

RDC 216/2004 asks for records with the date and the name of the employee responsible (sections 2.14 and 4.11). They include:

Temperatures of stored prepared food.
Cooking, hot holding and cooling checks.
Staff health records.
Training records for food handlers and the responsible person's course.
Pest control company certificate.
Water tank cleaning certificate, at least every 6 months.
Cleaning records under the cleaning POP.
The Manual de Boas Práticas and the 4 POPs, approved, dated and signed.

How long to keep them. At least 30 days from the day the food was made (item 4.11.3). Some states and cities may ask for longer, so check with your local VISA.

Paper or digital? There is no government records app or set form. We found no rule against electronic records.

5. Where businesses go wrong

Common record problems are easy to picture:

No Manual or POPs. The documents are missing, or not signed and dated.
Gaps. Days with no checks written down.
No name or date. The record does not show who did the check.
Records thrown away too early. The rule asks for at least 30 days.
No proof of the course. The responsible person was trained, but nothing proves it.
Training not shown. Staff were trained, but nothing is written down.
Missing certificates. No pest control or water tank cleaning certificate on file.
Cooling too slowly. Food not brought from 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours.
Lost or damaged pages. Paper gets wet, greasy or thrown away.

6. By type of business

RDC 216 applies to food services, and the records you keep depend on what you do.

Restaurant: daily checks, cooking at 70°C or more, hot holding above 60°C, cooling, cleaning, and allergen information for every dish.
Takeaway / delivery: the same as a restaurant, plus keeping prepared food at safe temperatures until it leaves. We did not find an official federal rule for delivery apps, so we give none.
Café / lanchonete: fridges and displays, cleaning, and labels with name, date made and use-by date on prepared food.
Bakery / padaria: written allergen records for every product, and temperatures for fillings and cream.
Dessert shop / confeitaria: fridge and freezer temperatures for desserts and ice cream, and allergens for toppings and sauces.
Bar: the same records as a restaurant for the food you serve.
Venue: temperature and cleaning records for each event.
Corner shop / mercadinho: fridge and freezer checks, delivery checks, and allergen information for food you pack yourself.
School kitchen: temperature and cleaning records, and careful allergen records for every child. We did not confirm separate official school-meal rules for this page.
Caterer / food truck: temperatures during transport and at the event, and your records with you. Ask your city VISA how it licenses mobile units.
Home kitchen business: we did not confirm a national rule. Ask your city VISA what licence applies.

7. Why digital records help in Brazil

Nothing forbids them. We found no rule against electronic records. If you are unsure, ask your VISA.
Date and name every time. Each record shows the day and the person, which RDC 216 asks for.
No gaps go unnoticed. A missed check shows up the same day, not at the next inspection.
Problems come with their fix. When a reading is out of range, the record can ask what you did about it.
Nothing is lost. No wet, greasy or missing pages.
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.

8. How Chef Hygiene helps

Chef Hygiene follows ANVISA's RDC 216/2004. It does not license your business and is not approved by ANVISA or any city or state health surveillance. 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 temperatures built in, such as 70°C cooking, hot holding above 60°C and cooling from 60°C to 10°C in 2 hours.
Food safety plan ("safe methods"). 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 and a "Put it right" list.
Allergen chart and labels. Every dish against the allergens, a staff view on the kitchen tablet, and labels for food prepacked for direct sale, with allergens in bold.
Staff training records.
Inspector pack. Print all your records as one pack, or share them by secure link.
40 languages. The app works in Portuguese, and staff can use it in their own language.

9. A fair price, on purpose

Chef Hygiene costs a low monthly price per site, close to €2.99, and about €1.99 for bakeries, dessert shops and corner shops, shown in reais in your app store. Staff are unlimited, there is no contract, and there is a 14-day free trial.

We keep the price low on purpose. We want as many food businesses as possible, from a single food truck to a busy restaurant, to keep good records and stay out of trouble at inspection.

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 less waste, and nothing to store in a back office.

11. FAQ

Do I legally need food safety records in Brazil?

Yes. RDC 216/2004 asks for a Manual de Boas Práticas, 4 written POPs, and records kept at least 30 days.

Who inspects restaurants in Brazil?

The Vigilância Sanitária (VISA) of your city or state. ANVISA writes the federal rule.

Do I need an alvará sanitário?

Yes, a local health licence from VISA. Which level (city or state) and what steps vary by city, so ask your city.

Is there a hygiene rating in Brazil?

No. There is no national grade or score for restaurants.

What are the 4 POPs?

Cleaning of premises, equipment and furniture; pest control; cleaning of the water tank; and hygiene and health of food handlers.

Do I need HACCP?

Not under RDC 216. You need the Manual and the 4 POPs.

How long must I keep records?

At least 30 days from the day the food was made. São Paulo's new rule may ask for more; check with your state.

What temperature must food be cooked to?

At least 70°C in every part, unless a lower temperature with a longer time is shown to be safe.

How hot must hot food be kept?

Above 60°C, for 6 hours at most.

How fast must I cool food?

From 60°C to 10°C within 2 hours, then below 5°C or frozen at -18°C or colder.

How long can prepared food stay in the fridge?

At 4°C, 5 days at most, labelled with its name, the day it was made and its use-by date.

Do my staff need a certificate?

The person responsible needs a documented course on contaminants, foodborne illness, hygienic handling and Good Practices. Other handlers must be trained regularly, with proof. The rule sets no hours.

Do staff need a health exam?

Yes, an occupational health exam (ASO) under NR-7, as the company's occupational doctor sets.

Are digital records accepted?

We found no rule against electronic records, and no government form. Ask your VISA if you are unsure.

What allergen information do I need?

For packaged food, 18 allergens must be warned on the label (RDC 727/2022), but food made and sold on the same premises is exempt. We found no federal menu rule for restaurants, but customers have a right to clear information.

What are the penalties?

Under Lei 6.437/1977: a warning, seizure of food, closure, licence cancellation or a fine from R$ 2,000 up to R$ 1,500,000, doubled for a repeat offence.

Do I need a licence for a food truck or home kitchen?

Ask your city VISA. We did not confirm a national rule for either.

Who decides fire safety rules?

Each state, through its fire brigade (Corpo de Bombeiros).

How much does Chef Hygiene cost in Brazil?

A low monthly price per site, close to €2.99 (about €1.99 for bakeries, dessert shops and corner shops), shown in reais in your app store, with unlimited staff, no contract and a 14-day free trial.

12. Official sources

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