Food Safety Inspection – How to prepare for a visit from the inspector

More and more councils are publishing the results of their inspections online and scoring restaurants on their food safety results through the ‘Scores on the Doors’ system, it is more important than ever for your business to be prepared when the Environmental Health Officer (EHO) pays you a visit.

Figures from the World Health Organisation reveal that food-borne diseases kill 2.2 million people globally each year – albeit only 500 in the UK – yet the problem is believed to be largely underestimated because of the difficulty of tracking food-borne disease outbreaks.

The success of a restaurant depends as much on its food hygiene as it does on its food quality. It takes a great deal of effort to build up a good reputation in a food business, but if food safety problems occur, then reputations and profits will undoubtedly suffer, and in some cases the business may not survive the loss of consumer and business confidence. There is also the potential for prosecution by the local environmental health department and civil action by individuals adversely effected.

Whatever the consequences, poor hygiene and food safety management are likely to be costly in both reputation and money, so investing in good standards of safety and hygiene is good for business.

Food preparation has to be carried out in a safe, clean, well-organised environment by trained staff. Below are a number of self-audit checks you can carry out to make sure this is the case.

Record keeping

Whether you are using the Safer Food Better Business (SFBB) food safety management system or another scheme it is important to carry out daily checks of the activities in the kitchen: start-up checks, refrigerator temperature checks, hot-hold checks, etc. These may take a few minutes to perform each day but are vital in ensuring that all kitchen activities are being carried out correctly. When properly recorded, they provide a body of evidence to prove that you are doing everything possible to produce safe food.

• Don’t forget to fill out any corrective actions you take. If you have a fridge breakdown, for example, writing it down could be important in proving how you dealt with the problem.
• Make sure that you have a number of staff trained and ready to do checks, as if only one member of staff is trained it will cause you problems with staff holidays and illness.
• Keep on top of change. If you get new equipment or start a new activity, do not forget to add the appropriate checks to the list.

Cleaning

Cleaning of the kitchen should take place daily, with some cleaning being done less frequently. However often cleaning is performed it must be recorded as having been done. Using the right chemicals and protective apparatus is vital. A washing-up liquid will not sanitise a surface. Know your chemicals.

• Use the right chemical for the right job and at the correct concentration. Remember, always read the label and follow the instructions.

Training

Having well-trained staff is a fantastic asset to any business. All staff, whether permanent or temporary, should have some level of hygiene and food safety training. It might be sufficient for temporary staff with a low level of responsibility to just have simple in house training.  More experienced staff who have a higher degree of responsibility, should attend an appropriate food safety course.

• Make sure staff training needs are analysed on a regular basis and their skills and knowledge are kept up to date.

Get advice

A Food safety consultant will be able to help you and your staff to prepare for an inspection. They can get you started with a food safety management system that is bespoke to suit your business. They may also offer an auditing service where they inspect the restaurant on a regular basis and help you to keep on top of record keeping and hygiene.

LRB Consulting, the restaurant health and safety consultant in Leicester can provide the above services to you, in addition to many more,  take a look at our food safety section on our website for more information, email us at enquiries@lrbconsulting.co.uk or call us on 01509 550023.

Many restaurant owners may think that they can’t afford a regular audit by an expert to make sure that their food safety standards are up to scratch, or they may be tempted to overlook staff training needs, but the cost of keeping up to date with these things is going to be far less than the cost of a food safety incident which could cost your business far more than just money.

If you take a proactive approach and put all the right measures in place, your business will benefit, your staff and customers will be happy and you could end up with a very high score on your door.