Summer is a time mobile food traders take to the streets and fields to take advantage of the passing seasonal trade. 

Cooking in a mobile structure presents a number of hygiene challenges for vendors who are still expected to maintain the same hygiene standards as we would expect in any other professional kitchen.

All mobile food traders must register their business with their local authority. Registration is free and easy to do online.

Once registered mobile vendors must ensure that all critical elements of food hygiene have been identified and controlled, for instance:

· Stalls must have adequate hand washing facilities with a supply of soap and suitably hot water. Alcohol gels must never be used as a substitute for soap and hot water.

· Chilled high risk foods must be kept at or below 8oC. Frozen food should be kept at -18oC. The core temperature of high risk foods must reach a minimum of 75oC. Cooked high risk foods intended to be served hot must be kept at or above 63oC until consumed. The vendor, as with any food business will be expected to monitor and record food temperatures at all stages of production.

· Cleaning – Preparation is vital. Numerous mobile food vendors have been caught out when they neglected to consider how they will cope when a million welly clad feet have churned their rainy venue to mud. 

There is much more information provided in the online Mobile Traders pack:

For further information please contact your local Environmental Health department. 

Holding a music festival, food fair or wish to sell your goods in the street – do you have the right licences or permission?

Premises Licence or Temporary Event Notice

If you are holding a music festival at which there will be entertainment, sale of alcohol, hot food is served or have a stall selling alcohol at a food fair or market you will need to ensure that you have the relevant licence or consent, this could be a permanent Premises Licence or a Temporary Event Notice (TEN).

A TEN is a notification of a one off event, for which up to 15 per year, totaling 21 days, can be held at any one venue with a fee of £21.00 per application. If you require more occasions then you will need to apply for a full premises licence.  It is important that you apply well in advance of the event, usually no less than two weeks in advance.

Visit Dorset for you for more information on what is required and when and how to apply.

Street Trading

Do you wish to setup a stall and sell your goods in the street/on the highway?  You need to check with the Council where you wish to street trade as there are different requirements depending on location.

You may only require a Pedlars Certificate if you travel and trade on foot going from town to town which are issued by the Police.

Sitting out/street café licence

If you run a café or licensed premises and wish to place tables and chairs outside you may require a Sitting Out/Street Cafe Licence please visit our website for more information.

Anyone selling food and drink, must ensure labels, allergens information and weights and measures are accurate. 

You must be aware of any allergens that are included in the food you are selling and put in place effective ways of communicating this information to your customers. Further information on food allergens can be found on the Food Standards Agency website 

Prepacked foods and products such as jam/marmalade, meat products or honey have special labelling requirements. 

Any prices must be clearly displayed on a label or price list.

If you are selling alcohol, there is a range of legislation that will apply specifically to you.  For example beer and cider must be sold in 1/2, 1/3 or pint measures. Further information can be found on the Business Companion website. 

Alcohol must not be sold to anyone under 18 yrs. A persons age is often very difficult to assess, if in doubt ask for identification.

Every year in the UK, a large number of children are injured playing on inflatable bouncy structures. Many of these accidents could be avoided with correct organisation and supervision.

When hiring Inflatable structures ensure:

· Equipment is hired from a reputable company, and wherever possible, set up, operated and managed by their own staff. 

If you find yourself in charge of a bouncy castle then make sure you are provided with written instructions about how to set it up, operate and supervise it safely and have the suppliers contact details to hand for technical support.

Safety instructions should include:

· Never use a bouncy castle in high wind or wet weather.

· Routine checks to ensure the bouncy castle is secured to the ground.

· Soft matting is placed at the entrance of the castle, especially over hard surfaces.

· Blower should be 1-2 metres from the inflatable and not accessible by children.

· Ensuring responsible adult supervision at all times during its use.

· Limiting the number of children on the inflatable at any one time.

· A rota system for different age or size groups should be operated and an upper age limit should be observed. 

· All children to remove footwear, hard or sharp objects from their pockets.

· Do not allow food and drink onto the bouncy castle.

Further information can be found at the HSE website: 

During the summer months hot and sweaty music venues open doors and windows in a bid to cool their punters. This gives rise to noise nuisance complaints from neighbouring properties that are affected by the noise that escapes out of the windows and doors along side the heat and humidity.

Adopting the following procedures will help to minimise the likelihood of disturbance to local people and prevent noise complaints.

1.    Ensuring that all doors to and from your premises are kept closed, except when patrons are entering or exiting the premises.

2.    Ensuring that all windows are kept closed.

3.    Maintain ventilation systems and use these to cool the premises.

4.    Advice patrons of the need to behave properly and quietly when entering or exiting your premises.

5.    Avoid carrying out noisy activities e.g. emptying bottles into skips at unreasonable hours.

6.    Ensuring that the volume of your amplification equipment is regularly monitored, to prevent the “escape” of noise from your premises.  This can be achieved simply by a member of staff walking around the premises once or twice each night – If they can hear the music/announcements outside your boundaries then the noise is too loud.  The volume control/bass can then be turned down to compensate.