If you run a food business, you need a food safety risk assessment. It’s a legal requirement – and one of the most important documents for maintaining hygiene standards and protecting your customers.
On this page, we’ll explain what food safety risk assessments are, show you how the NCASS online tool helps you create one step-by-step, and walk you through our latest tool updates designed to save you time and reduce hassle.
Use the links below to jump to the section you need:
> What is a Food Safety Risk Assessment
> Our Latest Updates to the Tool
> How to create a Food Safety Risk Assessment (Demo)
As part of the NCASS Safety Management System (SMS), all NCASS members have access to an online food safety risk assessment tool so they can create a food safety risk assessment.
This tool enables you to create an assessment of your processes based on the principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control (HACCP) and in line with the legal requirements to have a food safety management system.
As part of an effective hazard analysis, the NCASS Food Safety Risk Assessment Tool lists the steps/processes in the overall food production process depending on the type of business, what food or/and drink you sell and what equipment you use.
Our tool lists all processes and outlines food safety hazards that apply. You simply input your information and processes that apply to your business and match these with relevant controls, monitoring procedures and corrective actions which you should put in place to minimise risks and to produce safe food.
Remember, it is key that what is detailed in your finished risk assessment can be fully implemented and reflects real life. Your implementation of your food risk assessment may be assessed during your routine environmental health inspection so there is no point including details that do not apply in real life.
NCASS members have always had access to risk assessment tools that help them to put these documents together, but we’ve recently made big improvements following feedback from both members and EHOs, which will make it easier to tailor to your business and quicker to complete.
It was clear from our feedback that members wanted the ability to have full editing control over the content we provide throughout and to add in more of their own specific details and food processes etc. The finished document was also too lengthy in places, making it over-arduous.
Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) want you to know your risk assessments in detail and for them to be specific to your business at any given time. They are checking the implementation of food safety risk assessments during routine food safety inspections and provide advice when the content does not match the real-life processes within the business. Our aim is to ensure that members fully understand their risk assessments and are therefore found to be implementing them correctly.
We have worked with members and EHOs and:
- Improved the look and feel of the tool
- Improved editing and personalisation tools
- Removed duplication to shorten the final document
- Made it easier to share digitally – especially for remote inspections or event applications
- Added support for more advanced food processes (like sushi, vacuum packing, or sous vide) and given you the ability to create content completely from scratch
- Enabled completed food safety risk assessments to be more easily saved, viewed and shared digitally, including through the Digital SMS (LINK not DSMS page)
How this helps your business:
- You’ll understand your risk assessment better and know it matches your real-life processes
- It’s easier to update and manage going forward
- EHOs will find it easier to review – and that can support your Food Hygiene Rating and save time at inspections
- You’ll be able to add new processes and still keep it all in one clean, professional document
This step-by-step video shows you how to use the NCASS online tool to build a tailored, HACCP-based food safety risk assessment for your food business. You’ll learn how to identify food safety hazards, apply the correct monitoring and control measures, and generate a professional, compliant risk assessment document.
✅ Getting started
✅ Selecting food processes
✅ Reviewing and editing hazards
✅ Adding specialist processes
✅ Downloading your finished assessment
If you want guidance on how to create your RAs, get in touch by phone by calling us on 0300 124 6866 or email us via [email protected]
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