Food Safety Records in Saudi Arabia: Laws and Inspections

Saudi food safety records explained: the law, municipal inspections, the records inspectors ask for, common failures and how digital records help.

2026-10-31 · Chef Hygiene

Do food businesses in Saudi Arabia need food safety records? Yes. The Food Law and its Executive Regulation require every food establishment to keep the records and documents the authority names, and municipal inspectors can ask to see them. In practice, restaurants, cafés, bakeries and shops are licensed and inspected by the municipality (amanah or baladiyah) under the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing (MoMAH). The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) sets the technical rules and can act too. We found no public hygiene rating for restaurants. This page explains the rules, what inspectors look for, where businesses lose marks, and how digital records help.

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Every fact below comes from an official Saudi source. Where we could not confirm something, we say so. Nothing here is legal advice.

The law: what every Saudi food business 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 Saudi Arabia
How Chef Hygiene helps
A fair price, on purpose
Less paper
FAQ
Official sources

1. The law: what every Saudi food business must do

The main laws. The Food Law (Royal Decree M/1, 1436H) and the SFDA Executive Regulation of the Food Law (Food Law, English translation on the MISA site). The establishment must know the source of its food and its suppliers (Articles 17 and 18). Household kitchens are not counted as "food establishments" in the Food Law.
The detailed rules for restaurants. MoMAH publishes "requirements" books for each kind of business. For restaurants, cafés, cloud kitchens and food kiosks this is the Restaurant Requirements 1446H (2025) (English copy on Balady). Arabic prevails over the English copy.
A licence before you open. You need a municipal licence through Balady, with Civil Defence approval before it is issued, and a valid commercial registration for the activity. The unified electronic QR code must be shown on the facade (Restaurant Requirements 2.1, 5.1, 5.2).
A person in charge. Every establishment must appoint a manager responsible for food safety. Under Article 50 of the Executive Regulation this person trains handlers, keeps sick handlers away until they recover, applies food safety management systems, keeps the records and documents the SFDA names and gives them on request, reports at once any food that may harm consumers, and applies traceability, recall and withdrawal.
HACCP. We found no sentence that makes a HACCP certificate compulsory for an ordinary restaurant. The Restaurant Requirements ask you to monitor and control critical control points. Central kitchens must apply HACCP and hold a HACCP or ISO 22000 certificate from a body named by the SFDA, and have a certified food safety specialist (Central Kitchens Requirements 1446H).
Temperatures. These are food temperatures, measured with a probe, not the display on the equipment (Restaurant Requirements, section 5.5):
Chilled food: 0 to 4°C.
Frozen food: below -18°C. The freezer is checked at opening and at closing.
Receiving: frozen food not above -18°C, chilled not above 4°C. Check high-risk food on arrival, and record it.
Hot holding: 60°C or above. Eat within 6 hours. If it falls below 60°C, eat within 4 hours or throw it away.
Cooking: 75°C at the core, or an equal pair such as 70°C for 2 minutes or 65°C for 10 minutes.
Cooling: cooked food to below 10°C within 2 hours, then to 4°C, and use within 2 to 3 days.
Reheating: 75°C at the core.
Staff health and certificates. All workers must hold a health certificate. It is the digital certificate from Balady, valid one year, with a medical check at an approved clinic. A worker with diarrhoea, fever, vomiting, a skin disease or discharging wounds must be sent away until the symptoms are gone. The restaurant must report to the authorities if more than two employees have diarrhoea or vomiting at work (Restaurant Requirements 5.5.18, 5.10; Health Certificate Requirements Guide).
Allergens. Give the 14 allergens in the menu, on a board, on a product ticket, or tell customers to ask trained staff. Label allergen foods in storage and store them apart. Update the information when a recipe changes (Restaurant Requirements 5.5.15).

2. Who inspects you, and how often

The municipality. The amanah or baladiyah, under MoMAH, licenses and inspects restaurants, cafés, kitchens and food shops. The violations table is titled for food establishments "under MoMAH supervision".
The SFDA. It sets technical rules, supervises factories, warehouses and importers, and can act under the Food Law. SFDA inspectors may enter, read and copy any document or record, and take samples (Food Law Articles 22 to 24).
How often. We could not confirm a fixed visit schedule. MoMAH reports that its inspections covered 97% of food establishments in the first half of 2026 (MoMAH news).
The health control register. The owner or manager must keep the register issued with the licence and show it to the inspector at every visit, except where the electronic health-control system applies. Nothing in it may be scraped out or removed (General Health Requirements Regulation 1440H, Article 13). It is the inspector's visit log.

3. No public rating, but real penalties

No rating. We found no public hygiene grade, star or letter for restaurants in the Restaurant Requirements, the violations table or on Balady.
A violations table. MoMAH and the SFDA publish one for food establishments, version 1447H (MoMAH). Violations are "grave" or "not grave". A not-grave violation first gets a warning and a grace period of 1, 7 or 14 days. A grave one is punished at once. Penalties double on repeat.
How the fine is set. The amount depends on the city class (1 to 5, from the biggest secretariats down to small municipalities) and on the size of the business (micro 25%, small 50%, medium 75%, large 100%). The figures below are the top rate (class 1, large business). Check the table for your own municipality.
Examples from the table.
No municipal licence: up to SAR 50,000.
Not keeping food at the right temperatures: up to SAR 1,000.
Food of unknown source: up to SAR 5,000.
Rodents, insects or droppings inside: up to SAR 2,000, with closure until fixed.
Allergen board or menu missing: up to SAR 500.
Law-level penalties. The Food Law (Article 36) allows fines up to SAR 1,000,000, a ban of up to 180 days, licence suspension up to a year, and revocation.
Food poisoning. A separate penalty table, published in 2026, fines restaurants per affected person, with no warning first (MoMAH table).

4. The records inspectors ask for

The guides name these records and documents:

Receiving temperatures of high-risk food (5.5.1).
Equipment monitoring. A temperature monitoring system for fridges and freezers. The guide sets no frequency for fridge checks. School canteens must check fridge and dry-store temperatures daily and write them in a special register.
Cleaning by a schedule set in advance. The violations table fines not following cleaning rules by a schedule.
Pest control. Insect traps must run 24 hours. The General Regulation 1440H asks for detailed pest-check records or a contract with a licensed pest company.
Health certificates of every worker, kept and shown to the authorities (5.5.17).
Training records for all staff (General Regulation 1440H, Article 17).
Allergen information for every dish.
Traceability. A paper or digital system for all food, ingredients and packaging. Record the supplier's name and address, date received, product, quantity, and batch details, and the customers you supply. Keep these for at least 180 days after the end of shelf life (Executive Regulation Articles 51 and 52; Restaurant Requirements 5.5.19). The supplier invoice can serve as the record.
Home delivery log kept inside the establishment.

Are digital records accepted? Yes. The Restaurant Requirements say documents may be printed or a mix of printed and electronic if the establishment uses digital solutions (5.5.17), and traceability may be paper or digital (5.5.19). The register that belongs to the inspector may be paper or electronic. No text we read names or forbids a private app.

5. Where businesses go wrong

No licence, or an expired one. One of the highest fines in the table.
Health certificates. Missing, expired or not shown. The table fines the establishment per worker.
No proof of temperature checks. Fridges, hot holding and cooking not recorded.
Food of unknown source, or traceability gaps. Records kept for less than 180 days after shelf life.
No cleaning schedule, or one that was not followed.
Pests. Droppings or insects seen, or traps not running 24 hours.
Allergen information missing, and records not shown.

6. By type of business

The Restaurant Requirements form the template for most MoMAH books. Each kind below has its own book.

Restaurant: the Restaurant Requirements 1446H. Receiving checks, temperatures, cooking, cooling, cleaning, health certificates, traceability, allergens, and a displayed list of meat types and their source.
Takeaway: the same book, plus the Municipal Requirements for Home Delivery 1446H. Hot food delivered at 63°C or above, chilled at 4°C or below, frozen at -18°C or below. Riders hold a health certificate (MoMAH).
Café: cafés are inside the Restaurant Requirements. We found no separate café book.
Bakery / cake shop: the Bakeries and Sweets Requirements (1447H, 2025). Pasteurised egg for raw or half-cooked egg recipes, ready-to-eat egg items in the fridge at 4°C or below, frying oil not above 190°C, and labels with a production date. It replaces the older 2019 rules (MoMAH).
Dessert shop: sweets shops fall under the same bakeries and sweets book. Ice cream shops have their own Ice Cream Shop Requirements (2026): ice cream made on site pasteurised to 85°C, and display freezers at -18°C.
Club / venue that serves food: we found no separate official requirements book, so ask your municipality which book applies.
Community hall / venue: the Event Halls and Exhibitions Requirements 1446H. If a hall has a main kitchen, the Restaurant Requirements apply in full. Everyone in food work needs a health certificate, whether employed by the hall or contracted.
Corner shop / grocery: the Convenience Stores, Groceries and Hypermarkets Requirements 1446H. Storage temperatures must be monitored, verified and recorded. Chilled 4°C or less, frozen -18°C or less. Expired goods go on a separate shelf and are disposed of within two weeks of expiry (MoMAH).
School / nursery kitchen: school canteens follow the joint Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health guide. Fridges must not go above 4°C, and chilled storage is checked daily in a special register. Every worker needs a health certificate.
Caterer / food van: caterers and central kitchens follow the Central Kitchens Requirements 1446H. Food trucks follow the Mobile Carts requirements 1447H, which use the same temperatures as restaurants. No sauces or mayonnaise may be made in the cart.
Home kitchen business: the SFDA says home-made food is licensed through the municipalities, not the SFDA (SFDA FAQ). We could not confirm which hygiene rules apply, so ask your municipality.

7. Why digital records help in Saudi Arabia

Accepted. The Restaurant Requirements allow digital or mixed documents, and digital traceability.
Ready on the spot. Refusing to show records is a grave violation. A digital record can be shown at once.
Expiry reminders. Health certificates last one year, and renewal opens 60 days before expiry.
Nothing is lost. No wet, greasy or missing pages, and traceability data stays for 180 days after shelf life.
Every staff member can take part, on a phone or tablet, in their own language.

8. How Chef Hygiene helps

Chef Hygiene follows the Saudi rules. It keeps your daily records ready for the municipality inspector. It does not license you and does not file anything with Balady or the SFDA. 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 temperatures in the Restaurant Requirements 1446H.
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 and a "Put it right" list showing the likely result under Saudi rules.
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. The app works in Arabic and English, and in 38 other languages, so kitchen staff can use their own.

9. A fair price, on purpose

Chef Hygiene costs about €2.99 a month per site (about €1.99 for bakeries, dessert shops and corner shops), shown in riyals 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 cart 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 less waste, and nothing to store in a back office.

11. FAQ

Do I legally need food safety records in Saudi Arabia?

Yes. The person in charge must keep the records and documents the SFDA names and give them on request (Executive Regulation Article 50). Traceability records are a clear duty.

Who inspects restaurants in Saudi Arabia?

The municipality (amanah or baladiyah) under MoMAH. The SFDA can act too.

Do I need a licence before opening?

Yes. A municipal licence through Balady, with Civil Defence approval first, and a valid commercial registration.

Is there a hygiene rating?

We found no public hygiene rating for restaurants.

Are digital food safety records accepted?

Yes. The Restaurant Requirements allow documents that are printed or a mix of printed and electronic, and traceability on paper or digitally.

How long must I keep traceability records?

At least 180 days after the end of shelf life.

What temperature must my fridge be?

0 to 4°C for chilled food, measured in the food, not on the display.

What temperature must hot food be kept at?

60°C or above, and eaten within 6 hours. If it falls below 60°C, eat it within 4 hours or throw it away.

What temperature should I cook food to?

75°C at the core, or an equal pair such as 70°C for 2 minutes.

Do my staff need a health certificate?

Yes. Every worker needs the digital Balady health certificate, valid one year. Renewal opens 60 days before expiry, and it is cancelled if not renewed within 15 days after expiry.

What allergen information do I need?

The 14 allergens, in the menu, on a board, on a product ticket, or by telling customers to ask trained staff.

When must I report sick staff?

Send away any worker with diarrhoea, fever, vomiting or a discharging wound. Report to the authorities if more than two employees have diarrhoea or vomiting.

What happens if I refuse to show my records?

It is a grave violation, with a fine of up to SAR 5,000 at the top rate, plus the size and city reductions in the table.

Are there separate rules for bakeries, ice cream shops and groceries?

Yes. MoMAH has separate requirements books for each, with the newest versions replacing older 2019 rules.

Can I run a food business from home?

The SFDA says home-made food is licensed through the municipalities. We could not confirm the hygiene rules, so ask your municipality.

How much does Chef Hygiene cost in Saudi Arabia?

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

12. Official sources

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