Published by Lemon, the maker of one of the apps compared. Supplier facts checked 26 September 2026; check current pricing pages before buying.
The best food safety app depends on what your kitchen needs to record and who needs to see it. SFBB+ is worth considering for a low-cost digital SFBB pack. Lemon suits teams looking for daily food-safety records with individual staff access. SFBB Pro adds a dedicated SFBB workflow and optional label printing. Hubl, Trail, Paddl and FoodDocs offer different combinations of records, oversight, planning and wider operations.
These are our assessments of fit, based on each supplier's own documentation, rather than an independent product test or a paid ranking. Where we could not find a feature in a supplier's pages, we say so rather than marking it absent.
Compare the shortlist
Prices below are published starting points, not equivalent packages. Currency, VAT, staff limits and contract terms affect the amount you pay.
| App | Worth considering when you need | Published price | Important detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFBB+ | A digital SFBB pack at low cost | £4.99 / premises / month, shown as inclusive | Multiple premises and staff supported; the website offers a 90-day trial |
| Lemon | Daily records, custom checks and individual staff accounts | £19 / month / location | Unlimited team members; food-safety records as PDF; staff training included; 14-day trial, no card |
| SFBB Pro | SFBB records, team oversight and food-date labels | £25.95 / month for the first location | Unlimited staff; £12.95 / month for each additional location; printer £99.95 |
| Hubl | Tiered records, reporting and optional consultancy | £19 / site / month, excluding VAT | Full checklist customisation starts at £32; Venti Plus has a 12-month contract |
| Trail | Shared operational tasks and site oversight | Team £38 / site / month, or £32 with annual billing | 12-month minimum term, even when paying monthly |
| Paddl | Food safety alongside broader compliance and operations | £69 / location / month | Pricing page includes 5 staff; extra users are charged |
| FoodDocs | HACCP planning, monitoring and optional traceability | Lite $99 / site / month; Standard $199 | Mobile monitoring app and HACCP-plan tools listed on Standard; excludes VAT |
For the full cost discussion, including annual billing and hardware, see our UK food safety software cost guide. Check the supplier's current terms before subscribing.
Apps for daily kitchen records
SFBB+: start with the pack
SFBB+ follows the SFBB approach and offers a longer trial than most products here. Its usage guide describes diary entries, temperatures, document scanning and multiple contributors across premises. You can keep delivery notes and training certificates with the pack.
Shortlist it when familiar SFBB records and a small subscription matter most. During the trial, check how your staff handle custom tasks and follow-up actions. Scanning a delivery note and completing a structured delivery form are different workflows; decide which your kitchen needs. We set the two side by side in Lemon vs SFBB+.
Lemon: a focused daily-records option
Lemon is for kitchens that already have their food-safety procedures and want staff to record the daily work on a phone. It covers temperatures, cooking and cooling checks, deliveries, editable checklists and an optional dish allergen matrix. Staff use their own accounts, and food-safety records can be exported as PDF. Lemon's product documentation explains the workflows.
Lemon costs £19 per location per month for food-safety records and staff training. The 14-day trial needs no card and includes training. Team members are unlimited, which makes the trial worth testing with the whole shift, rather than only the manager.
Choose another tool if your requirement is automated HACCP-plan generation, continuous sensor monitoring or checklists you can run without a connection. Lemon does not provide those. An allergen matrix also does not replace checking ingredients, supplier information and the way dishes are prepared.
SFBB Pro: SFBB and labelling in one workflow
SFBB Pro's documentation covers configurable checks, deliveries, incidents, allergen information, reminders and remote access across locations. Its label-printing option is a concrete reason to include it on a kitchen's shortlist.
Test it if staff prepare many dated containers or you want an SFBB-focused system with individual logins. The signup form lists £12.95 monthly for each additional location and £99.95 for the printer. Ask about VAT and offline behaviour before you buy. See Lemon vs SFBB Pro for the feature-by-feature view.
Hubl: choose the tier by the job
Hubl's pricing page separates basic checks from customisation, reporting and consultant support. Grande adds custom checklists and allergen tools; Venti adds incident and risk records; Venti Plus includes a personalised food-safety and health-and-safety system.
This is useful when you want a route from routine records to more support. Check the tier your team actually needs and the cancellation notice. A comparison against the £19 Tall plan alone would miss much of Hubl's offer; Lemon vs Hubl goes through it tier by tier.
Apps with broader planning or operations
Trail: tasks across the business
Trail suits teams combining food-safety checks with other recurring work. Its SFBB page describes prefilled tasks and custom routines, while its multi-site product page focuses on common standards and manager visibility.
It runs through a browser and advertises an offline mode. Test that mode on your kitchen's actual devices. Reporting and corrective-action tools appear on Standard rather than the entry Team plan. A monthly invoice does not remove Trail's 12-month minimum term, so consider the commitment alongside the interface. More in Lemon vs Trail.
Paddl: a wider compliance workspace
Paddl covers food safety alongside areas such as equipment, licences and risk assessments. Its AI documentation describes assistance with HACCP and SFBB drafts, with human review before information becomes a record.
Shortlist it when consolidating several operational systems matters more than buying the smallest diary app. The pricing page quotes five included staff per location and charges for extras, although some homepage wording suggests otherwise. Ask for your actual team cost in writing. Its 30-day trial requires a card, and the annual offer is £703.80 per location. See Lemon vs Paddl for the side-by-side.
FoodDocs: planning connected to monitoring
FoodDocs is worth considering when you need to build and maintain a HACCP system as well as record checks. Its product overview describes configurable monitoring, staff guidance, multi-location visibility and traceability workflows.
Plan selection matters: Lite is presented as desktop monitoring; Standard adds the mobile monitoring app and HACCP-plan tools. Professional adds batch traceability. Ask which tier, integrations and onboarding services your operation needs. Keep its US-dollar quote in dollars until you calculate your own tax and exchange costs. Lemon vs FoodDocs compares the tiers with Lemon.
Other options worth checking
food-safety.app advertises local device records and offline use without a cloud account, at £6.99 monthly or £69.99 yearly. That may suit a dedicated kitchen device. Check backup, device replacement and shared access before choosing a local-storage workflow.
Leafe combines food-safety records with wider kitchen tools. Basic starts at £28 per venue per month plus VAT for a solo account; Standard at £68 supports up to five team members; Pro at £119 adds a broader operations and support package. The seven-day trial includes Pro software, so compare your chosen paid tier with what you tested. See Lemon vs Leafe.
Navitas Safety offers software and support packages, with appliance sensors included in Pro. Essential is £129 per month and Pro £159, with standard terms of 12 and 24 months respectively. Ask about early-exit windows, tax, hardware and support scope. This is a different buying decision from subscribing only to a record-keeping app. See Lemon vs Navitas Safety.
For consultant-supported implementation, consider Alert65 from Food Alert, which supplies pricing by enquiry. Pilla is another option if configurable workflows and follow-up across a deskless team are central to your requirement. Obtain a current quote and demonstration for the workflows you need.
How to choose during a trial
Start with one week of actual work: opening, deliveries, temperature checks, cleaning and closing. Ask two staff members to use separate accounts and have a manager retrieve the records. Use invented test data in a clearly separate trial environment, not false entries in your operational records.
Then test a problem, not just a successful check. Can someone record what went wrong, what they did and who needs to follow up? Can the manager find that entry later? If your kitchen loses signal, test the documented offline behaviour, including closing and reopening the app.
Export a sample report. Check names, dates, readings, notes and the range covered. Do not assume that a dashboard, document library and downloadable report contain the same information. If you manage several kitchens, repeat the test while switching locations.
Finally, compare the whole bill: the needed plan, all staff, every site, VAT, hardware, onboarding and the minimum term. A cheaper entry tier can cost more once it covers the work you actually require.
Common questions
Which food safety app is best for a small café?
For a shortlist, compare SFBB+, Lemon, SFBB Pro and Hubl against your actual records, team size and budget. If labelling, consultant support or reliable offline use is essential, test those requirements before choosing on price.
Is a HACCP app the same as a digital SFBB diary?
The labels overlap, but the products differ. Some help maintain an existing pack and daily records; others also create plans, manage traceability or support wider operations. Ask the supplier to demonstrate the specific work rather than relying on the category name.
Does buying an app make a kitchen compliant?
No. The business still needs suitable procedures, staff who follow them and accurate records. The FSA's SFBB guidance explains the pack and its use. Software supports the work; a product recommendation cannot promise an inspection outcome.
Every head-to-head we publish is listed on Compare Lemon.
