Yes, You Really Do Need That Sign.

July means festivals, agricultural shows, weddings and town events back to back. It also means the busiest month of the year for the people who come and check on you while you’re doing it: Environmental Health Officers, event safety officers, trading standards, and increasingly, insurers asking questions after the fact.

The knock on the day

Most of that conversation is about what’s in your van and on your prep table. But a fair chunk of it, and almost all of the conversation that happens after something goes wrong, comes down to what your customers were told, and whether you can show it.

An inspection or a walk-around at an event usually isn’t dramatic. Someone with a clipboard wants to see food hygiene practices, temperature records, allergen information, PAT testing, gas safety certificates, and that your pitch is set up the way your risk assessment says it should be. Most NCASS members handle this without much trouble because the paperwork exists and the practice matches it.

What catches people out is the part that isn’t about food safety at all. It’s the customer-facing side: what a guest actually said before they queued, ordered, paid, or wandered near your generator cable. That’s rarely checked on the day. It’s the thing that gets asked about six weeks later, when a complaint or a claim lands.

The bit that gets forgotten

A sign taped to your counter or a line on your menu board looks like the least important thing on your pitch. It’s usually the thing that decides how a dispute goes.

A disclaimer or a customer notice does two jobs. It sets expectations before something happens, so a customer can’t reasonably claim they weren’t told. And it creates a record, because a photograph of the sign on your pitch that day is evidence in a way that your memory of putting it up isn’t.

What a sign can’t do, and let’s be honest about it

A disclaimer cannot exclude your liability for death or personal injury caused by your negligence. That’s the law under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, and for consumer-facing terms, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 adds a fairness test on top of that. A sign that says ‘we accept no liability for any injury, however caused’ is not enforceable, and relying on it as your only protection is a false sense of security. If someone is hurt because your gas bottle wasn’t secured properly, no sign saves you. Proper risk assessment and safe working practice do.

What a sign genuinely does protect you on is everything short of that: managing expectations, recording that information was given, and covering the areas where the law allows you to set your own terms. That’s still most of the disputes we see.

Examples worth putting up this summer

✅ Allergen notice: All dishes are prepared in a kitchen handling nuts, gluten, dairy and other allergens. Please speak to a member of staff before ordering if you have an allergy or intolerance.

✅ Photography and CCTV: CCTV and photography may be in operation at this event for security and promotional purposes. By remaining on site, you consent to being included in general shots.

✅ Queueing and wait times: Wait times may vary during busy periods. We are unable to accept liability for delay caused by circumstances outside our control, including venue capacity, weather or power supply.

✅ Personal belongings: We are not responsible for loss or damage to personal belongings, vehicles or property left unattended on or around this pitch.

✅ Weather-dependent or outdoor events: This is an outdoor event and subject to weather conditions. Menu availability may change at short notice.

✅ Cash and card: Card payments only after 8pm. We reserve the right to refuse service where payment cannot be verified.

✅ Booking and cancellation policy signposting: Full booking terms, including our cancellation policy, are available on request and were provided at the time of booking.

None of these are complicated. None of them takes more than five minutes to print and laminate. But each one closes off a specific argument a customer or their solicitor might otherwise try to make.

How this usually plays out

🤦‍♀️ A sign existed, but nobody photographed it on the pitch that day, so there’s no proof it was actually displayed when the incident happened.

🤦‍♀️ The wording was copied from another business and included a blanket ‘no liability for injury’  line, which isn’t enforceable and looks bad if it’s ever tested.

🤦‍♀️ Allergy information was given verbally but never backed up with a visible notice, so it came down to one person’s word against another’s.

🤦‍♀️ The disclaimer was on the website terms, but nothing was visible at the point of sale, where most customers actually engage.

Quick tips that can protect your business

✅ Print your key notices and laminate them, then keep spares in the van.

✅ Photograph your pitch setup, signage included, at the start of every event.

✅ Review your wording once a year, not just when something goes wrong.

✅ Keep a copy of every version of your terms and notices, with dates, so you can show what applied when.

✅ Brief staff on what the signs say, so they’re not caught out if a customer asks.

Give your pitch a 5-minute audit

Before your next event, look at your pitch the way an inspector or a claimant’s solicitor would.

• Is your allergen information visible, not just verbal?
• Do your disclaimers cover the things that actually go wrong for you, not a generic template?
• Would you have a photograph proving your signage was up if you needed one?
• Do your terms and conditions match what’s on the signs?

If the honest answer is “not really”, it’s a half-day fix, not a big project. And it’s a lot cheaper to sort now than to explain later why it wasn’t there.

Where we come in

That’s where we can help.  This is exactly what we help catering businesses with: drafting disclaimers and customer notices that actually hold up, reviewing terms and conditions, and making sure what’s on your signage matches what’s in your contracts.

We’re offering NCASS members a free 30-minute legal telephone consultation to help identify gaps in their paperwork and compliance processes.

Support available:

• Document reviews from £75
• Disclaimers from £75
• Ongoing legal support from £495 a month
• PAYG package – £595 for 3 hours of banked legal advice over a period of 6 months.  No question is too small if it helps you avoid a bigger problem later.

Get in touch and let’s make sure you’re ready before you need to be.

Because the best evidence is gathered before you need it.

📨 [email protected]

Or call your nearest office:

☎ 0118 321 4188 (Berkshire & Home Counties)

☎ 01260 212414 (Cheshire & Northwest)

☎ 01843 808021(Kent & Southeast)