Checklist for Your Restaurant Health Inspection

Even when you do everything right, a health inspection can be challenging. You may feel you forgot something critical or weren’t as thorough as you could have been in your cleaning and sanitation processes. For these occasions, have a checklist for your restaurant health inspection to ensure everything is as good as possible before the inspector arrives.

How’s Your Food Storage?

How you store your food is the key to a positive health inspection. Ensure that all food in storage is at least six inches off the ground, that you separate food items from chemicals, and that your storage unit provides a clean and dry environment.

Are You Maintaining Your Refrigeration Systems?

Items that need cold storage require some unique considerations. As in regular food storage, food in refrigerators and freezers must be at least six inches off the ground, and the environment must remain clean and organized. However, unique to cold storage, you need thermometers visible to those outside. This way, you can ensure you keep freezers at an appropriate temperature to keep food items from spoiling.

How Do You Prepare the Food?

To prevent cross-contamination, you’ll need separate cooking stations for different types of food. Also, all frozen food must be thoroughly thawed before chefs handle it. You need to demonstrate that you know how to clean foods such as fruits and vegetables to eliminate the threat of harmful bacteria.

All employees must also handle food with the proper equipment, such as gloves, beard guards, aprons, and utensils. Employees improperly handling food is among restaurants' most significant health concerns.

Are You Disposing of Garage Properly?

Garbage is a normal part of a kitchen, and you need dedicated areas to safely store waste until you can get it to the dumpster. Please remove the garbage when it becomes full to prevent over-filling and spills and ensure the dumpster is as clean as possible and free of pests. Regularly clean off the excess waste and garbage residue on your disposal bins to maintain a clean environment.

Maintain a Clean Environment Year-Round

You must maintain cleaning and hygiene beyond when you believe you have an inspection coming. For the safety of workers and patrons alike, keep your food clean, your workstations and utensils sanitized, and your employees up to date in their training on to handle food properly and dispose of garbage. You may need the services of a hood cleaning friendswood service, or ones like it, to do a thorough clean of areas that get the most use day in and day out, as those will be inspected in detail. Otherwise, having a checklist for your restaurant’s health inspection will be for nothing.

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