Culinary Key

Culinary Key is a web-based food safety records system for UK kitchens. It replaces paper diaries with opening, cleaning, temperature and closing checks, plus allergen, COSHH, pest control, maintenance and training records that are timestamped and exportable for inspections. It is priced per location, with every feature in every plan.

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Culinary Key's website on 30 September 2026
Best for
UK independent kitchens and cafes, Small multi-site food businesses
Pricing
From GBP 40 per location per month
Runs on
Web

Who it is for

  • UK independent kitchens and cafes

    The vendor says a head chef can set it up in an afternoon and hand it to the team the same day.

  • Small multi-site food businesses

    One account covers every site, each with its own staff, checklists and records, and there is a cross-site compliance overview.

Less suited to: Businesses outside the UK: the product is built around UK rules such as Safer Food Better Business, FHRS ratings and the 14 UK allergens.

What it does

  • Opening and closing checks

    Guided, customisable checklists that are timestamped and logged against the staff member.

  • Daily and scheduled deep cleaning

    Assigns daily cleaning tasks and recurring deep cleans on 1 to 4 week rotations.

  • Photo proof

    Optional photo on any checklist task, kept with the completion record.

  • Food probe checks

    Logs cooking, cooling and holding temperatures with configurable pass/fail thresholds.

  • Fridge and freezer logs

    Records unit temperatures against target ranges set for each unit.

  • Missed-log detection

    Flags checks that were not completed and requires them to be acknowledged.

  • Allergen tracker

    Records the 14 UK allergens per menu item, stored per location.

  • COSHH register

    Records each cleaning chemical with hazards, PPE, handling, storage and review frequency.

  • Waste, accident and incident logs

    Structured logs for food waste, accidents and near-misses with corrective actions.

  • Pest control and maintenance logs

    Tracks contractor visits, findings, next visit dates and equipment repairs.

  • Delivery checks and inspection tracking

    Records deliveries with arrival temperature and official inspections with FHRS rating and outcome.

  • Staff training and in-app modules

    Tracks certificates, issues internal certificates and offers training modules plus a new starter induction.

  • Bulletins

    Sends notices to some or all sites, optionally as tasks each person must acknowledge.

  • Monthly compliance reviews

    Prompts a monthly review of the food safety management system.

  • Inspector access and audit exports

    Read-only logins for inspectors and PDF export of a site's history.

  • Full data export

    The account owner can download all records and files as one archive.

Pricing

Starting price
From GBP 40 per location per month
Pricing model
Subscription per location
Minimum contract
No contract stated
Renewal
Renews automatically each billing period; cancel any time in the billing portal, effective at the end of the period
Free trial
30 days, no card required

1 to 4 locations are 40 GBP per location per month (about 17% less billed annually; the about page gives 400 GBP a year). 5 to 9 locations are 35 GBP and 10 or more are 33 GBP per location per month. Every plan has every feature; larger groups can get in touch.

How it compares

Compared with the 8 products in Digital Food Safety Checklists & Audits that have a profile on this site. These figures describe the category. They are not a recommendation.

  • Has a free trial. All 4 products in this category that say whether they have a free trial do.
  • Lists Web only. Among the 8 products in this category that state their platforms, 4 list an iOS app and 3 list an Android app.

Where and how it runs

Available in
United Kingdom
Languages
English
Platforms
Web
Hardware
None stated. The vendor says staff complete checks on any device.

The vendor describes the product as a food safety platform for UK kitchens.

The company

Company
Culinary Key Ltd
Registration
Company No. 16256914
Founders
Marley (surname not given)

Security and support

Support
Email and chat support are listed for the trial plan, and priority support for 10 or more locations. Contact is by email.

Listing details

Headquarters
United Kingdom
Built for
Restaurants, Cafés, Bars, Hotel F&B
Focus
Food-specific
Status
Active
Website
culinarykey.co.uk
Also listed in
Equipment Monitoring & Maintenance

Alternatives to Culinary Key

See all 23 in Digital Food Safety Checklists & Audits

  • Hubl

    Hubl is a food safety app for UK kitchens that replaces paper diaries with digital temperature logs, checklists, delivery records, allergen records and documents.

    Starts at GBP 19 per site per month, against GBP 40 per location per month for Culinary Key.

  • Compliance by MAPAL

    Compliance is the digital checklist and food safety module of Mapal OS, a hospitality back-of-house platform.

    Listed as best for: Multi-site restaurant and catering operators; Hotels and catering businesses.

  • Checkit

    Checkit sells wireless temperature and humidity sensors together with a cloud platform and mobile apps for digital checklists and workflows.

    Runs on Web, iOS and Android, against Web for Culinary Key.

  • FreshCheq

    FreshCheq is restaurant software that replaces paper food safety and operations logs with digital ones.

    Runs on Web, iOS and Android, against Web for Culinary Key.

Compare Culinary Key

Side-by-side tables built from the same profile data.

What we could not confirm

These points were not confirmed when this page was written.

  • Integrations
  • Native mobile apps
  • Founding year, headquarters, team size
  • Customer names
  • Security certifications and hosting
  • Hardware such as sensors

Sources

Facts on this page come from the pages below, checked on 29 September 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm with the vendor before you buy.

  1. Homepage: positioning, trial, company number, founderhttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/
  2. Pricing tiers and trialhttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/pricing
  3. Feature listhttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/features
  4. About: audience, annual pricehttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/about
  5. Renewal and cancellation termshttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/legal/terms-of-service
  6. Page discoveryhttps://www.culinarykey.co.uk/sitemap.xml