Health inspection prep: what inspectors check and how to get ready

Your inspector enforces your local food code. The FDA publishes the Food Code as a model, and state, local and tribal governments adopt it, often an earlier edition and with their own changes. So the rules below are a strong guide, but your health department’s version is the one that counts. Ask them for a copy and for their inspection form.

The FDA Food Code sorts violations into three kinds:

• Priority: directly linked to preventing illness, such as cooking and holding temperatures or bare-hand contact. Corrected on the spot, or within 72 hours at most if the inspector allows.
• Priority foundation: things that support priority items, such as thermometers, test strips, a stocked hand sink and staff training. Corrected on the spot, or within 10 days at most.
• Core: general cleanliness, maintenance and facilities. Corrected by an agreed date, within 90 days at most.

Scoring and grading (letter grades, points, pass/fail) are set locally and differ from place to place. Assume an inspector can arrive at any time you are open.

Check your local code for each one. Some local codes keep older or stricter numbers, for example a higher hand sink water temperature.

Temperatures. They will probe food in coolers, on the line and in hot holding, and ask how you cool soups, sauces and rice. Keep temperature and cooling logs, and have a working, calibrated probe thermometer.

Hands. Hand sinks must be stocked with soap and paper towels (or a dryer), unblocked, and used only for hands. Staff may not touch ready-to-eat food with bare hands; they use gloves, tongs or deli paper (§3-301.11).

Cross contamination. Raw animal foods are kept away from ready-to-eat food, produce and each other, for example by storing raw meats below ready-to-eat food (§3-302.11). Covered containers, labels and dates.

Cleaning and sanitizing. Sanitizer at the right strength (have test strips), a dish machine that reaches its temperatures, and a three-compartment sink set up correctly.

Sick staff. Staff must report vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, and infected wounds, and illness diagnosed as norovirus, hepatitis A, Shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, typhoid fever or non-typhoidal Salmonella (§2-201.11). Have a written policy and a way to show staff were told about it.

The person in charge. The FDA model code says the person in charge should be a certified food protection manager (§2-102.12). Keep the certificate on site.

Allergens. Staff should know the major food allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame) and the symptoms they can cause. Never tell a guest a dish is allergen-free; always check with the kitchen.

The building. Pests, chemicals stored away from food, lighting, ventilation, floors and walls, and the ice machine.

Walk the route an inspector would, once a week, with a clipboard. Change who does it now and then.

1. Hand sinks: soap, towels, warm water, nothing in the basin.
2. Walk-in and reach-ins: probe three items in each. Raw meats below ready-to-eat food. Everything covered, labeled and dated; anything past seven days out.
3. The line: probe cold rails and hot wells. Check how anything cooling is being cooled.
4. Staff: gloves or utensils for ready-to-eat food, hair restraints, no one working sick.
5. Dish area: test the sanitizer and the dish machine. Wiping cloths in sanitizer.
6. Storage: food off the floor, chemicals away from food, no signs of pests.
7. Paperwork: temperature and cooling logs, shellfish tags, the manager certificate, the illness policy.

Fix what you find the same day, and write down what you fixed. The food safety checklist turns this into tasks you can tick off and print.

• Greet them, check their ID, and have the person in charge walk with them.
• Keep service running safely. Don’t rush to hide or throw things away.
• Take notes, and ask questions if a finding isn’t clear. It is a chance to learn what they look for.
• Fix what you can on the spot, such as re-stocking a hand sink or discarding food held at the wrong temperature.
• Read the report before you sign it, and ask when any follow-up visit will be.

• Make a list of every finding, who will fix it, and by when, within the times on the report.
• Find the cause, not just the symptom: a cooler that ran warm may need a repair, not just a reminder.
• Train the team on anything that came up, and add it to your weekly walk-through.
• Keep the report. If you disagree with a finding, ask your health department how to request a review.