Food business registration in Spain: do you need RGSEAA?

What RGSEAA is

RGSEAA (*Registro General Sanitario de Empresas Alimentarias y Alimentos*) is Spain's national register of food businesses, set up by Royal Decree 191/2011 (amended by Royal Decree 682/2014). It's run by AESAN, the national food safety agency, but you apply through the health authority of the autonomous community where your business is based, even though the register itself is national.

Being on it gives the company a sanitary registration number, which in some cases has to appear on the product's label alongside the other mandatory information required under EU Regulation 1169/2011 on food labelling.

Who actually needs it (and who doesn't)

This is where most confusion comes from: not every food business needs the RGSEAA. Most restaurants, bars and shops that sell directly to the end customer don't register with this national database. Instead, they file a comunicación previa (a prior declaration) with the regional or municipal health authority before opening.

The RGSEAA is generally aimed at a different kind of business: food manufacturers and processors, companies importing food from outside the EU, or businesses that put food on the market under their own brand to supply other outlets, such as a bakery that sells packaged product wholesale, or a butcher that processes meat and supplies other businesses.

RGSEAA vs comunicación previa

• Comunicación previa: filed with the autonomous community or town hall, required for practically any business that handles or sells food, including restaurants, bars and shops. It usually goes hand in hand with your opening licence.
• RGSEAA: a national register, reserved for the business profiles described above. Applying for it usually asks for more technical documentation about your production process and facilities.

How to apply

1. 1Find the right body in your autonomous community, usually the Consejería de Sanidad or public health department.
2. 2Prepare the paperwork: details of the company, the premises and the activity you'll be carrying out.
3. 3Submit the application or declaration through whatever channel your region has set up, often online.
4. 4Get your registration number (if RGSEAA applies to you) or confirmation of your comunicación previa.
5. 5Keep your details up to date: any relevant change to the activity, the owner or the premises has to be reported.

Alongside this registration, you'll need the rest of your food safety paperwork in place too: your HACCP plan and its prerequisites, and a traceability system that lets you say where every ingredient came from. These are separate pieces of the same file, and all of them get checked at a health inspection.

What happens if you're not registered

Trading without the comunicación previa you need, or without the RGSEAA registration when it applies to you, is a food safety infringement that can carry a fine and, in the more serious cases, a precautionary closure until the situation is sorted out. It isn't something worth leaving until after you've already opened.