Staff Sickness and Fitness to Work
Record staff sickness the way the FSA asks, follow the 48-hour rule after diarrhoea or vomiting, and record a safe return to work.
Updated 6 November 2026
Food businesses must keep anyone who may spread illness through food away from food handling. Café QR helps you record who was off, why in broad terms, when they can come back and that they came back safely, following the FSA's fitness to work guidance. Owners, and the managers they choose, can do this. Nobody else can see these records, and they never show on a till.
Who can see sickness records
Owners always can. Managers can too, unless the owner turns it off for them: open Staff, find the manager and press Sickness records: can see (turn off). Floor and kitchen staff, tills and waiter tablets never see them. Records are deleted a year after they close.
Record someone off sick
- Open Safety, then Sickness.
- Choose the member of staff. For an agency or temporary worker, leave Agency or temporary worker selected, type their name and tick This person is an agency or temporary worker. Don't record visitors or contractors.
- Tick every symptom that applies, choose Off work or At work, no open food, and say whether they were at work with symptoms.
- Press Save. The record stays open, and on your Today list, until you record their return.
There are no boxes for medical notes. Don't write medical details anywhere.
The 48-hour rule
If Diarrhoea or vomiting or Someone at home has diarrhoea or vomiting is ticked, the earliest return is 48 hours after the symptoms stopped. Record Symptoms stopped on the open record and Café QR works it out. For other symptoms, set the earliest return yourself.
Record the return
Open the record and press Record the return. The person types their own PIN to confirm they've had no symptoms for 48 hours; for an agency worker, tick that they told you. You sign it as the manager by typing your own PIN, if you have one set. If they're back before the earliest return, choose the reason: Not infectious, GP or health professional advice, Symptoms were mild and short or Other. The optional note is limited to 100 characters.
If they worked while they had symptoms, record Areas cleaned (who and when) first. The record can't close without it.
Pregnancy and disability
Some symptoms come from pregnancy or a disability and aren't infectious. Keeping someone off work because of them may raise issues under the Equality Act 2010. If a GP, or what you know about the person, shows the symptoms aren't infectious, use the Not infectious reason. If you aren't sure, take advice.
On the till
If someone with an open record logs a food record on a till, they see "Please check with your manager before logging food records today." It says nothing else and clears after 10 seconds. The record still saves, and the sickness screen shows you how many were logged.
Alerts, summaries and inspections
- You get one email when a record has had no return for 7 days. It has no names or symptoms. Change it under Safety, then Set up, then Alerts.
- The morning summary only says how many records are open.
- The inspection report leaves sickness out unless you press Include fitness to work. It then shows "reportable symptoms", never which ones, and every printed page carries a reminder to store it securely.
When someone asks for their records
Under A person asks for their records, choose them and press Open their records to save as PDF, then print or save it and give it to them. See what to tell your staff.