Goods receipt log

What the law requires

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Article 18 requires every food business to be able to identify the suppliers of its food and to give this information to the authorities on request. Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, Annex II, Chapter IX says a business must not accept raw materials that it knows or can reasonably expect to be contaminated, and that the cold chain must not be interrupted. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency pack Safer food, better business asks for the same kind of supplier records. The accepted temperatures and what you check at each delivery come from your own HACCP plan and the national guide.

Check the temperature, packaging, label and use-by date on delivery. Keep invoices and delivery notes so you can trace every product back to its supplier.

How to fill it in, in 5 steps

1. 1Write the business name and the month at the top, and list your approved suppliers so staff know who may deliver.
2. 2Check every delivery as it arrives, before it goes into storage: the vehicle, the packaging, the labels, the use-by dates and the temperature of chilled and frozen goods.
3. 3Write the date, the supplier, the products, the lot numbers, the measured temperature and the invoice or delivery note number in one row.
4. 4If a product is too warm, damaged or out of date, reject it or set it aside, and record the reason in the corrective action log.
5. 5Sign the row with your initials, then file the invoices and delivery notes with the sheet so every product can be traced back to its supplier.