Hygiene and HACCP · EU · AT · DE

Food business operator

A food business operator is whoever is responsible for ensuring that food law is met in the food business under their control, whether for profit or not. EU law expressly names restaurants and staff canteens. You bear primary responsibility for safe food and must notify your business to the authority for registration, including changes and closures.

Legal basis

EU — applies in Austria and Germany: Reg. (EC) 178/2002 Art. 3: a food business operator is whoever is responsible for meeting food law in their own business, whether for profit or not; the Regulation expressly names restaurants and canteens.1
EU — applies in Austria and Germany: Reg. (EC) 852/2004: primary responsibility lies with the operator (Art. 1); businesses must be notified for registration, including changes and closures (Art. 6(2)).23
AT — Austria: § 10 LMSVG: notification to the provincial governor for registration; data from the trade register can be used for this.4
DE — Germany: No separate registration provision consulted; Art. 6 of Reg. 852/2004 applies, and the authority under state law is responsible. According to the Hesse information sheet, businesses already known to the authority count as registered.356

What the inspector wants to see

Who is the responsible operator, and who represents them on site?17
Is the business notified, and have changes such as a new activity or a new site been notified?34
How do you ensure that the requirements are met and checked?8

Common mistakes

A new site or a new activity such as catering not notified.3
Responsibility pushed onto employees.2
Clubs or pop-up stalls do not consider themselves food businesses.1

Practise, read, print

The guide is in German for now.

Practise · 5 minWhat inspectors want to see GuideHACCP-Konzept erstellen – Aufbau und Vorlage

Sources

We read every source in the original on the date shown and checked it against the text: EU law in its German-language version, the links lead to the English one. All sources and what has changed (in German)

1Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 (General Food Law), Art. 3(2), (3), (7) and (15) · checked 23 September 2026
2Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, Art. 1(1)(a), (d) and (e) · checked 23 September 2026
3Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, Art. 6(2) · checked 23 September 2026
4AT — applies in AustriaLebensmittelsicherheits- und Verbraucherschutzgesetz (LMSVG), the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Act, Austria, § 10 (1) and (3) · in German, checked 23 September 2026
5DE — applies in GermanyLebensmittel- und Futtermittelgesetzbuch (LFGB), the Food and Feed Code, Germany, § 38 (1) · in German, checked 23 September 2026
6DE — applies in GermanyHesse: information sheet MB-001 on hygiene in food businesses (as of June 2024), pp. 1–3, 5 and 7 · in German, checked 23 September 2026
7AT — applies in AustriaLebensmittelsicherheits- und Verbraucherschutzgesetz (LMSVG), the Food Safety and Consumer Protection Act, Austria, § 35 (2) and (3) · in German, checked 23 September 2026
8Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 (General Food Law), Art. 17(1) · checked 23 September 2026

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