Miracle Brews: a five-star hygiene rating, earned by the barista
Pre-opening support for Petit Miracles, a charity in Shepherd's Bush, London.
How can a charity café or coffee cart pass its food hygiene inspection?
Keep one set of food safety records that meets the stricter of the local and national requirements, and make sure the people serving can use those records without you. For Miracle Brews, Petit Miracles' charity coffee cart in London, I wrote the food safety plan, risk assessment, and manuals in a format designed for dyslexic and neurodivergent readers. At the inspection, the barista walked the inspector through the records alone. The cart was rated five stars, the top of the UK's scale.
Where they started
Petit Miracles upcycles furniture in Shepherd's Bush and uses the profits to fund training and jobs for people with disabilities and others who find work hard to come by. Miracle Brews, a coffee cart staffed by that community, was the next step. Before it could serve a single cup, it needed the paperwork every food business needs, and that paperwork had to work for the people who would actually use it.
What I did
- A pre-opening risk assessment and a HACCP plan, the food safety plan every food business needs (in Spain, the APPCC).
- Health and safety documents, operations manuals, and training materials for the team.
- One standard, the strictest. Where the local council and the UK's national food regulator asked for different things, I used the stricter of the two, so one set of records satisfied both.
- Documents designed for the reader. Most food safety paperwork is written for inspectors. These were written for the barista, who is dyslexic and neurodivergent: larger type, more space between lines, a soft grey background instead of glaring white, no capital-letter headings, very little colour, pictures alongside the words, and every process broken into numbered steps.
The result
On inspection day, the barista answered the inspector's questions and walked through the records without the founder in the room. Miracle Brews was awarded a five-star food hygiene rating, the highest on the UK's scale.
The barista told me that, for once, he had been given something he could work with. That matters more to me than the stars.
What they said
"Working with Ben Sawyer was an excellent experience. As a hospitality consultant, Ben supported our social enterprise coffee initiative, Miracle Brews, by developing a comprehensive Health & Safety manual and a full HACCP plan for the project. His expertise and guidance ensured that our operational systems met the highest professional standards.
Miracle Brews creates supported employment opportunities for people with disabilities, so it was incredibly important that our food safety procedures were both robust and accessible for an inclusive workplace. Ben approached this with great care, designing the manual to be clear, practical, and dyslexia-friendly, ensuring it could be easily understood and used by a diverse team.
His professionalism and ability to translate complex compliance requirements into an accessible format made the entire process smooth and effective. Thanks to Ben's work, Miracle Brews achieved a 5-star Food Hygiene Rating, which was a major milestone for the project.
I would highly recommend Ben to any hospitality business or social enterprise looking for expert support in food safety, compliance, and operational systems."
Elicisia, Founding Trustee, Petit Miracles
What this means for you
If you are opening a café, a cart, or a kitchen, your food safety records are only as good as the person using them at eight on a busy morning, in whichever language they work in. Write them for that person.
- Opening soon: the Pre-Opening Diagnostic, €497, or Plan, from €365 a month.
- Running an asociación, fundación, or social enterprise: how I work with social enterprises.
Is there a food hygiene rating in Spain?
Not like the UK's. There is no national star rating; in Andalucía, the Junta's health inspectors check your premises and your records, and can order changes or close you until they are made. What they want to see is the same everywhere: a food safety plan built on HACCP principles, records that are kept, allergen information for every dish, and staff trained to handle food. The old carnet de manipulador is no longer required, but the training still is.
Talk it through
Tell me what you are opening and who will be running it. I'll tell you what the inspector will want to see.