Since January 2006 new law came into effect under which childminders who offer food, such as drinks and snacks, as part of their service, are considered to be food business operators and therefore are legally required to register their premises with the local Environmental Health Department.

However if you provide no more than the following levels of food service as part of your normal business, you should not be required to register as a food business operator.
a. Provision of mains drinking water
b. Provision of crockery and cutlery for use by children to eat their own packed lunches.
c. Provision of chilled storage for packed lunches that belong to the children.
d. Occasional assistance to children with cutting up their own food in response to individual need rather than as an established service.
e. Occasional provision of food that is not part of the normal service (e.g. a cake to celebrate a child's birthday or provision of food where a parent/guardian has been delayed).
f. Operating in the child's own home and serving food that belongs to the child's parent/guardian e.g. nannies or home childcarers.

If you do need to register, the good news is that there is no charge for this registration and childminders only need to contact their local District Council Environmental Health Department, Commercial Section, who will send them out a Food Registration Form and a short questionnaire. Once the childminder has filled these forms in and returned to Environmental Health, that department will decide whether they need to visit the childminder.

As food operators, childminders are required to keep invoices and receipts for any food products they buy for their childminding, ie for business purposes. THIS IS A LEGAL REQUIREMENT. Previously the NCMA had an agreement with the HM Revenue & Customs that only receipts over £10 need to be kept but with food items all receipts must be kept as this enables the Food Standards Agency to trace where food came from, for example if a child had food poisoning.

As to how long you keep your receipts, the Food Standards Agency have said that childminder should decided how long to keep these records based on

So if you provide food for your minded children you are FOOD BUSINESS OPERATOR and you do need to register with Environmental Health and to keep all your receipts for any food purchases

Childminders should also complete their Food Hygiene Certificate training and it is recommended that the Food Hygiene Certificate is renewed every three years.