18+ SAMPLE Food Safety Inspection Checklist

What is a food safety inspection checklist?

A food safety inspection checklist is a guide for food inspectors to make sure that the important aspects of gauging the cleanliness of a certain restaurant’s menu are looked into. These food safety inspectors examine the raw food, or the venue wherein food is prepared, and see to it if they are free from disease-inducing microbes, for instance, chemical contamination, harmful substances, unsafe processing and production, and a lot more that involve food, and the making of it. This is in compliance with health and safety protocols by the state to prevent harm and possible sickness to the general public. This record can be used by the food company or the restaurant itself to prove its credibility to their customers that they are officially approved as a clean and legitimate company that ensures safety of people who consume their products. Using the food safety inspection checklist, the company can even be preemptive and make sure that they follow these standards, based on the coverage of key things that the checklist specifically calls for.

Food Safety Inspection Key Points

They key points serve as the specifics of where the food inspector should look into in order to determine whether or not your food company passes the standards of health and hygiene protocols, and may even very possibly determine the continuance of your business, since unsafe products are a great threat to people in general. Hence, the preparation, storing, and managing of food products are meticulously checked by food safety inspectors, or Environmental Health Officers. These are the things that Environmental Health Officers will inspect when conducting an assessment in your area.

Cleanliness of Venue or Restaurant : It is important to physically keep your space neat and tidy, since when you work in the food industry, the surface level ultimately matters! And that is exactly why people in the culinary arts focus on perfecting the presentation of the food. In the same way, places where food is made, and places where food is served are expected to be free from mess and unpleasant things, for customer satisfaction, and for everyone’s safety in general. This means that it is expected for restaurants to be regularly cleaned, with swept and mopped floors, dusted walls and corners, and a lot more. Unlike human philosophies, your company is only ever what meets the eye, so you better make sure it is worthwhile and squeaky clean. That way, you are more likely to get a pass in your inspection.Food Storage : It is as important to keep what is behind your curtains as the main stage. For you to pass health standards, you need to make sure that your food supplies are kept in clean containers that are intact, to promise that the dishes you serve are unspoiled, and kept in places where contamination is less likely from external factors. The temperature you keep your food store in also matters, since raw food is required to be kept at a certain degree. This is important to be positive that no microbe has homogenized with your food as it sat still in your refrigerator.Pest Control Precautions : When there are goods, there are certainly pests that follow suit. This situation is present even as early as when crops are still being grown on fields, i.e. pests eating corn that are still fully developing. Pests don’t stop there, and they go as far as consuming goods that are anywhere they have access to. It is important for you to make sure that there are no living pests present in your restaurant or factory, for instance, to prove that your products have not come in contact with these harmful organisms. Some of these pests are rats, cockroaches, or flies. These are organisms that carry harmful diseases that will make consumers sick without their knowing, hence, it is a preemptive measure to see to it that they are non-existent in your area, and if there are signs that they are, there is an automatic respondent to solve the problem. Proof, or official statements to back these up are needed for you to pass the food safety inspection.Hygiene Practiced by Workers : The stake of food safety is not only contingent on the dishes, or the raw food, but the people who handle them as well. One of the important standards of food safety inspection to hit is the hygiene being practiced by workers. It is important to make sure that your employees are constantly washing their hands or sanitizing before laying hands on the products, and are wearing the proper equipment while doing so. This includes, but is not limited to wearing gloves when directly handling food, wearing hairnets to prevent hair falling into food, wearing masks in order not to exhale harmful substances to the food, or to evade pollution circling around the area, and a lot more. The principles of your company or restaurant should directly be reflected by your employees, and this is exactly what food safety inspectors look for.Food Equipment : With the prevalence of technology in our every day lives, it is no surprise that it has evolved into a necessity in the food industry as well. It makes our tasks easier, and it surely delivers more accurate outputs. Food equipment, then, is to be kept clean at all times, and made sure that they are working well. This may mean that reusing tools for long is not allowed. The constant washing and sanitizing of tools and equipment are important to secure the quality of the products themselves. An example of which is constantly checking if your blender is being cleaned constantly, or whether or not your metal kitchenware are rusting. These are things that may become unnoticeable in passing, but are very essential in making the food making process safe and holistic.Temperature Checking Log : Logs are essential, because these are real time records that are made as people go. Temperature checking logs are used to make sure that your company or restaurant are keeping close attention to the condition of your food, hence, further proving the safety of your products.Handling Raw Meat : Raw meat is to be made sure that it hasn’t had contact with other food. Raw meat is something very fragile and contagious regarding the microbes it carries. Raw meat, whether seafood or poultry for instance, should never touch other kinds of food, especially cooked ones, since cross contamination is very likely in situations like that. That way, food borne pathogens are very likely to affect the “safe” food, specifically because raw food carries living bacteria or harmful pathogens that can only be killed through excessive heat given through cooking. This is an integral key point that food safety inspectors will gauge during check-up.Food Labels : Food safety inspectors will see to it if your products have accurate and efficient food labels. Food labels are inherently important by virtue of them containing the important information that chefs, food handlers, or consumers need to know. These labels signify what the ingredients of certain food are, as well as handling instructions, should there be any. Warnings of allergic reactions may also be present, or even if they are not explicitly stated, the presence of the list of ingredients still serve as a guide for people to preempt potential allergic reactions. Expiry dates are also present in food labels, hence it is very important to be checked and secured to make sure that the ingredients or food are not spoiled.

How to Prepare for a Food Safety Inspection

When health and safety risks arise in a food business, so do their liabilities as a company. This is why it is very important for them to prepare for food safety inspections. Not only do they gain their credibility as part of the food business industry, but they also secure their investment to be something sustainable and profitable in the long run. One way to make sure that you do not fail the inspection is to conduct regular inspections of your own. After all, making sure that your products are safe is not only to pass an inspection, but to also guarantee the well-being of your consumers to begin with. With that, here are the important steps to follow in preparing for a food safety inspections.

Step 1: Required certification

You need a lot of government certifications before you can even begin a food business. Make sure to prepare all the needed certifications that are not expired for the food safety inspector to evaluate. This is to guarantee that your business is legal, and has gone through the required process to commence. This is also a requirement for a food safety inspection to start examining your area.

Step 2: Staff Orientation

Aside from making personal hygiene a necessity in the workplace, you also need to ensure that your staff knows the important information regarding the handling of food in your business. They need to know the answers to questions regarding their positions in food management, and how they regulate their work station in terms of health and safety. These may be things your staff knows in pragmatics, but may be things they do not exactly have the words for, hence it would be strategic for you to have a recap of some sort.

Step 3: Maintenance and Repairs

Some tools or equipment in the work station may be old, or close to deteriorating, hence, it is important for you to have maintenance for these objects, and make calls for the necessary reparations to be done to your kitchenware or appliances. This is to avoid future malfunction that may greatly affect your business, and also to make sure that your tools are kept up-to-date.

Step 4: Food Temperature Control

Food temperature is one of the main things to be checked during inspections. The attention you give it should be directly proportional to that. Make sure to prepare the food temperature log as backing document to show the clear maintenance of the temperature, and check your local health regulation requirements to see if your practices fit their standards.

What is the biggest threat to food safety?

There are a lot of things that are threatening to food safety, especially because we are talking about health. But generally, harmful microbes or bacteria are the biggest of which, since they are present within the food itself, and consumption of which can surely directly affect the humans coming in contact with them. This is why there are a lot of preemptive measures present in the food safety inspection checklist to safeguard food from this threat, such as the meticulous maintenance of food temperature, as well as their respective containers having to be tightly intact.

What are the 4 types of food hazards?

The four types of food hazards are physical, allergen, microbiological, and chemical hazards. Physical hazards pertain to the type of packaging the food has, which has a direct effect to the product in and of itself, as well as pest droppings, and a lot more accidental remnants coming from external things. Allergens are more contingent on the individuals, whether or not they are allergic to certain food. This is why checking the components and ingredients of a certain dish is so important since it makes sure that your consumption is still in line with your health. Microbiological hazards pertain to food borne pathogens that are mostly present in raw food, or perhaps yeast, viruses, and other harmful organisms that live inside food itself but are invisible to the eye, while chemical hazards are artificial substances that homogenized with food, despite being not supposed to.

What powers do food safety inspectors have?

Food safety inspectors have the power to document your food management, detain and seize a few unsafe products, and file reports or call authorities if there are any malicious practices within your business. They have direct control to the continuance of your business, since leaving an unsatisfactory impression to your food safety inspector may result to them failing your company in the check-up.

It is a long process to have that savory-smelling scrumptious dish on your dining table, because of the existing hazards present in preparing it in the first place. It is important for businesses to comply with health standards, since these are made to guarantee the safety of customers at the end of the day. Their credibility and ability to sustain their business are also contingent on them passing this inspection, which is why they are very much encouraged to regularly check their manufacturing and food management.