How To Pass The Health Department Inspection
It all begins with an idea.
In an environment where Health Department scores are becoming more visible and more relevant to diners when considering a place to eat, a below-average score can lower your guest count by as much as 20%!
Foodborne illness or a visibly dirty kitchen can deter even the most loyal customers. A closure to your establishment due to food safety and sanitation issues can be the end of a business altogether. And while statistics are important, there is also an inherent sense of pride for restaurant owners, chefs, and kitchen managers to have a clean and safe kitchen.
Health inspections are periodic check-ins by local officials to be certain a restaurant is running a safe operation for its guests. Inspections are almost always unannounced and tend to happen twice a year or probably more in other counties.
The health department inspectors are charged with enforcing the health code regulations, with a particular emphasis on the following:
Staff TRAINING!
Hot and cold holding temperatures of potentially hazardous foods
Improper cooking temperature of foods
Cross-contamination of utensils, equipment, and food contact surfaces
Personal hygiene
Unapproved food sources
Food Temperature Control
Food handling practices
Kitchen cleanliness - cleaning and sanitizing
Structural issues and facility maintenance
Pest control
Equipment maintenance
How can you prepare your restaurant for unannounced inspection?
Preparing for a restaurant inspection is not a one-and-done process – it's an ongoing one. Health inspectors can show up at any time, meaning your restaurant must always be ready to pass an inspection. The single most important piece in a food safety training program is establishing a company-wide buy-in, keep in mind to always Keep your People Involved (KPI). Training is an increasingly complex undertaking, and it requires constant repetition and creativity in delivering the message.
Be prepared for when an inspector shows up at your door.
Train your staff and be proactive. Create a documented training program for your staff.
Keep logs - keep a binder with documents for the health department’s review of records, you can keep your Line Checks, Prep Logs, and Cooling Logs in that binder.
Listen to your staff when they tell you that equipment is not working properly. Fix the problem right away, do not wait for the health inspector to find the problem.
“Teamwork is essential to success!”
Have frequent meetings with kitchen staff. Most issues with food-borne illness start here.
Ensure that handwash stations are unobstructed and easy to access and have an adequate supply of paper towels, liquid soap, and hot and cold running water.
Run Test Inspections with your staff
Access a copy of your area's health inspection grading criteria, then develop processes to ensure you're able to adequately pass all of them. You should also run regular test inspections to hold yourself and your staff accountable for any shortcomings.
Time and Temperature Control
Keep hot foods above 135°F and keep cold foods below 41°F. Reheat foods at 165°F, minimum internal temperature. Do not leave potentially hazardous foods in the Temperature Danger Zone (41°F to 135°F) for more than 4 hours total time.
Rapid Cooling
Improper cooling is one of the leading contributors to foodborne illness in food establishments. Rapidly cool potentially hazardous foods from 135°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then immediately from 70°F to 41°F within 4 hours.
Develop a HACCP Plan.
A Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan is recommended by the FDA to control any hazards surrounding food safety throughout the entire restaurant supply chain. Writing and sticking to this plan is a huge part of passing an inspection.
Conduct a Figure 8 Walk-through throughout your shift.
Outside of mock inspections, managers should keep their eyes peeled for violation-worthy offenses, such as cooks not using gloves or employees not washing their hands long enough. Enforcing these behaviors when you can see them is the best way to avoid violations before it's too late. Keep your staff engaged and motivated to do what’s right, food safety should be everyone’s top priority.
While every restaurant inspection will be different based on the restaurant's location and local guidelines, there are key subjects that nearly all restaurant inspections will focus on. Again, it's best to work with your local health department to ensure you're checking all the boxes here, but until then, here's a list of what you can do to get ready to pass your next inspection.
Sanitation
It goes without saying that general sanitation in a restaurant is a must. All surfaces should be cleaned at the beginning and end of each day, as well as between shifts. However, surfaces that touch food not only need to be cleaned but sanitized. The difference here lies in the extra steps to remove germs and grease from surfaces and equipment. To keep the restaurant sanitary, you should:
Stock up on sanitizers and disinfectants designed to keep a restaurant kitchen safe.
Develop a schedule for sanitizing bathrooms, door handles, tables, and any other surfaces touched by guests and/or employees.
Have a process for taking out the trash, cleaning the areas where trash is kept, and holding employees accountable for washing hands after handling trash.
Sanitize all cutting boards, utensils, and kitchen equipment after they are exposed to raw meat.
Sanitizing reduces the number of disease-causing microorganisms to safe levels. Unproperly washed plates, glassware, and utensils may cause someone to get sick so if you are using a 3-sink compartment or manual sanitizing, please ensure that the sanitizing solutions are at the proper level.
Bleach sanitizing solution = 100 PPM
Quaternary Ammonium = 200 PPM
Hot water = 171 F
General Sanitizing Process
Wash
Rinse
Sanitize
Air Dry - do not wipe dry
Food Storage
Proper storage ensures food is safe to eat before and after being prepared. It helps prevent cross-contamination and keeps food fresher to mitigate the risk of serving something that has prematurely spoiled. To keep your food fresh enough to pass an inspection, follow these guidelines:
Label stored food with their use-by dates and follow a first-in, first-out inventory method (F.I.F.O.)
Freeze and refrigerate foods at the proper temperatures to keep them from going bad (40°F or below for refrigerated foods and 0°F for frozen foods). Functional thermometers should be used to guarantee this.
Wrap or contain foods to prevent spills and/or the growth of bacteria. These containers should be airtight to keep ingredients fresh.
Regularly clean storage space and walk-ins.
Keep the meat as low to the ground as possible to prevent meat juices from trickling down – but keep in mind that food should also be stored 6” off the ground to avoid contamination.
Food Preparation
Even if it's stored correctly, food needs to be prepared in a way that ensures safe consumption by guests. This means chefs and line cooks should adhere to the following protocols:
Cooking meats to their recommended safe temperatures
Utilizing separate cutting boards for each type of meat, as well as separate cutting boards for non-meat items.
Ensuring meat is safely thawed and defrosted, as improper thawing can increase the growth of bacteria.
Sanitizing kitchen equipment before using it to prepare any allergen-inducing foods, as well as when customers alert you of an allergy.
Serving Customers
After preparation, the next step is getting guests' food served to them safely. Recommended ways to do that include:
Providing guests with glasses, utensils, and plates that have been thoroughly cleaned by dishwashers and inspected before use.
Keeping servers' and runners' bare hands away from food on the way to a table.
Enforcing the rule that once food touches a customer's table, it cannot be re-serve to other guests for safety reasons.
Sealing all food for off-premise dining in takeout containers to secure safe delivery.
Pest Control
Integrated Pest Management(IPM) is a must-have, having a monthly pest inspection from a reputable pest control company is often not enough, you need to create an IPM Inspection Checklist that outlines a comprehensive system of pest prevention and control. Know what the licensed pest control operator is doing for you. In my 25-plus years in the restaurant industry, I hardly see my pest control technicians, they have access to our facility so they come in after-hours. I recommend you meet with them at least once a month and go over their findings and recommendations.
Structural Issues
Ensure that walls, ceilings, and floors are free of damage which may cause rodents to enter your facility. Walls should be smooth (stainless steel, tiles, or FRP), especially in the kitchen area, walls must be non-absorbent, durable, and easy to clean.
Employee Hygiene
Even if food is stored, prepared, and served to customers safely, an ill employee can jeopardize everything.
Unfortunately, food workers tend to feel immense pressure to show up to work even when they're not feeling great due to the fear of lost wages or creating a bad impression of themselves in their managers' eyes. More than half of restaurant employees admit that they come into a shift when they're sick, and these employees need to know that the benefit of a fully-staffed shift does not outweigh the threat of passing illnesses off to customers and other staff members.
Importantly, the CDC notes that both managers and employees have responsibilities when it comes to worker health. Employees should report certain symptoms or exposures outlined in the CDC guidelines while managers should “ask the employee to stop work immediately and leave the food establishment” when certain illnesses are apparent.
Specifically, you can increase your chances of passing a restaurant inspection by adding these employee hygiene tasks to your checklist:
Ensuring employees have ready access to dedicated handwashing stations so they can wash their hands before and after handling food for at least 20 seconds.
Enforcing employee glove-wearing to prevent cross-contamination. These single-use gloves should be the right size for each employee, discarded if torn or soiled, and replaced after touching raw meat.
Communicating which symptoms mean employees should not come to work (also, it should be made clear that calling in sick for one of these reasons won't hurt their standing in the restaurant).
Dictating where staff can (and cannot) eat during their meal breaks.
Making it clear when employees should have their hair back and/or when to wear head coverings, in addition to knowing not to touch their faces and follow general hygienic best practices on the job (i.e. coughing into their elbows instead of their hands, covering open wounds with bandages, etc.).
Training never ends, again keep your people involved in the process. Instill that sense of pride on everyone in your team. I often ask my staff these questions, “Would you invite your family to eat in this restaurant? Would you recommend us to your friends and relatives?” you can gauge where you stand based on your staff's answer. Lastly, stay vigilant so nothing falls through the cracks!