The best food safety apps in the UK, and what each is best for

Every UK food business needs a food safety management system. GOV.UK says it must meet the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles, and that you must keep records of your checks and any corrective actions. Plenty of kitchens still do that on paper. A food safety app does the same job faster, puts a name and time on every entry, and lets you show an inspector the last week in seconds.

The right app depends on what you're trying to fix. A single-site café, a ten-pub group and a contract caterer need different things. This round-up covers the main options, what each does well and who it suits. Competitor details are as of October 2026, checked on each company's own website and linked in the sources.

First: the free paper options

Before paying for anything, know the government packs:

• England and Wales: Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB), with packs for caterers, retailers and others. GOV.UK says you can keep the diary electronically by filling in downloaded pages.
• Scotland: CookSafe, from Food Standards Scotland, helps caterers build HACCP-based procedures.
• Northern Ireland: the SFBB page points businesses to Safe Catering guidance.

These set out your procedures. An app is mostly about the daily records that sit alongside them. Our guide to Safer Food, Better Business digital covers moving the diary off paper.

The apps, one by one

Trail: best for task-heavy checklist routines

Trail, part of The Access Group, is a hospitality work-management app built around tasks and checklists. Its food-safety template library includes fridge and freezer temperature logs, hot food and reheating logs, delivery checks, probe calibration, pest activity, an Allergen Control Checklist and an Allergic Reaction Report. It supports mandatory photos, scoring, audits and sensor integration via labl.it.

Price: per site, from £38 a month on monthly billing (£32 billed yearly), with higher tiers at £75 and £82.50; all plans run on 12-month terms. 14-day free trial.

Best for: single sites or groups that want lots of ready-made checks and audit scoring.

Navitas: best for multi-site operators wanting sensors

Navitas describes itself as "the execution platform for multi-site hospitality and food operations". It offers digital checks on a phone with photos, continuous fridge and freezer monitoring through wireless Pods and gateways, a SmartProbe for food temperatures, internal audits, risk assessments, incident reporting and short training courses through Navitas Academy. Its industry pages cover hotels, contract caterers, quick service, care homes and venues.

Price: pricing on request (book a demo).

Best for: growing and multi-site operators who want automatic temperature monitoring and audits across sites.

Kafoodle: best for recipes, allergens and labelling

Kafoodle is recipe and menu management software from 365 RM. It tracks and communicates allergens, links recipes to an ingredient database so changes flow through, and handles nutrition, calorie and allergen labels, live digital menus, plus stock and ordering. We didn't find temperature logging or daily checklists on the pages we checked.

Price: pricing on request; free trial with no credit card.

Best for: kitchens where allergen accuracy across a changing menu is the main worry, especially with labelled food.

FoodDocs: best for building a HACCP plan

FoodDocs offers a monitoring system with pre-set and custom tasks and corrective actions, and on its Standard plan, HACCP plan creation, auto-created procedures, a digital recipe book and an allergen overview. It has sensor integrations and traceability on higher plans. It says it has a UK team in London.

Price: in US dollars, per site: Lite $99 a month or $79 billed annually, Standard $199 or $167, Professional $299 or $250, plus onboarding fees on some plans. 14-day free trial.

Best for: businesses that want help writing the HACCP plan itself, as well as keeping the records.

Checkit: best for automated temperature monitoring at scale

Checkit combines digital checklists and workflows with automated sensors for fridges, freezers and cold rooms, plus humidity and leak detection and asset monitoring. It serves food and beverage, hospitality and retail as well as healthcare and pharma.

Price: pricing on request.

Best for: larger operations with lots of cold storage, where continuous monitoring is worth the investment.

ShiftComplete: best for independents who want the rota in the same app

ShiftComplete is the operations and rota app for UK pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars and hotels. On the food-safety side it covers:

• Temperature logs for every fridge, freezer, hot-hold and ambient point, each with its own range. Staff log readings on a phone or tablet in seconds; out-of-range readings are flagged on the dashboard; photos optional; 7-day view for EHO visits. Readings are entered by staff, not sensors.
• Allergens: every menu item mapped to the 14 UK allergens, grouped by course, searchable by front-of-house, editable only by managers.
• Checklists for opening, closing, cleaning and due diligence that change by weekday, with named, timestamped ticks and optional or required photos.
• Incidents and maintenance with photo, severity and status, and risk assessments you can print.
• A weekly report and full audit log with CSV export.

What's different is that the same app does the staff rota: availability from staff phones, a fair draft rota built in seconds, split shifts by area and labour cost while you build. ShiftComplete doesn't write your HACCP plan or do recipe labelling.

Price: £1.49 per staff member per month, every feature, no per-site fee, no contract. 60 days free, no card.

Best for: independent pubs, restaurants and cafés, and small groups, that want one app for the team instead of separate rota and food-safety apps.

Food safety apps compared

"Not found" means we didn't see it on the pages we checked, not that it definitely isn't offered. Ask the supplier.

How to choose

Start with your biggest risk or headache:

1. Temps forgotten or faked? Look at sensors (Navitas, Checkit) or quick manual logging with breach flags (ShiftComplete, Trail).
2. Allergen questions from guests? You need a dish-by-dish matrix staff can search (Kafoodle, ShiftComplete).
3. No written HACCP plan? FoodDocs helps write one; SFBB or CookSafe is the free route.
4. Too many separate apps? ShiftComplete puts the rota and the records together.

Then check the practical things: does it run on the phones and tablets you already have, can you see a week of records in one screen for the EHO, and what does it cost at your size, in pounds?

"The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file." Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch

Whatever you choose, it helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see; it doesn't make you compliant on its own. For what an inspector will look at, read how to prepare for an EHO inspection. To try ShiftComplete, start your free 60-day trial or book a free 15-minute set-up call.