Environmental Health visits

What does an EHO check in a restaurant?

An Environmental Health Officer checks how you handle food, the premises, and your food safety management records. They typically ask for opening checks, temperatures, deliveries, manager sign-off, and the 4-weekly review for the dates they care about. Format is not the test. Complete, dated, accessible records are.

Last reviewed: 21 September 2026. Reviewed by Nitin Patel. Drafts are prepared with AI assistance and checked by him before publication.

Start 14-day free trial Will they accept digital records?

What officers usually ask to see

Local authorities run the visit. There is no single national script. In an SFBB kitchen the records conversation is usually the diary, not a speech about software.

Opening and closing checks
Fridge, freezer, cooking, and hot-holding temperatures
Delivery acceptance
Manager sign-off
The 4-weekly SFBB review

They may also want the safe methods, not only the diary pages. A temperature log on its own is not a food safety management system. See what digital SFBB records need to cover.

The visit is about the kitchen, then the pack

Officers look at how food is handled, stored, cooked, and cleaned. Records help you show due diligence under Food Safety Act 1990 section 21. Dated records help. They are not a guarantee. We do not claim EHO approval, FSA endorsement, or Primary Authority status.

How to hand records over without a scramble

Keep the diary on a device a manager can unlock. Filter to the dates asked. Show who completed each check. If the tablet is dead, digital records are not accessible — the same problem as a pack left in the office. Full steps live on will an EHO accept digital food safety records.

Print the EHO walk-in checklist and tick what you can find in 60 seconds before they arrive.

How System Hub is built for that hand-over

Timestamped SFBB checks during the shift, alerts when skipped, searchable history. Works in the browser. 14-day trial, no card, then £5/week per location incl VAT via Stripe. Cancel anytime.

Start 14-day free trial Food Safety product page

What does an EHO usually ask to see in an SFBB kitchen?

The diary for the dates they name: opening and closing checks, fridge and cooking temperatures, deliveries, and the 4-weekly review that covers those weeks. They also look at the food, the premises, and whether the pack matches what the kitchen does. A perfect PDF and a dirty fridge is still a problem. The diary does not replace the work.

They are the local authority’s officer, not a national inspector from the FSA. The pack may be SFBB in England and Wales, CookSafe in Scotland, Safe Catering in Northern Ireland. Bring the pack you are actually on. We do not claim the officer will like software. They need records that are complete, dated, and accessible.

Have the tablet unlocked on the dates, not “I’ll email it this afternoon”. If a check was missed, the honest row is better than a row filled in that morning in a different style. Due diligence under the Food Safety Act is about what you did, not a slogan.

What you open when they ask for Thursday. — The rows for the dates the officer names. You do not pick the best week.

Dates they ask for, not your favourite week.
Name on the checks. “Kitchen” is not a person.
The 4-weekly review for that period.
The food and the cleaning, which no log can fake.

FSA: Safer food, better business. Food Safety Act 1990, section 21 (due diligence).

Who actually carries out a food hygiene inspection?

The officer works for the council the business is registered with. They are not an FSA inspector on a national tour. The pack they expect is the one that nation uses: SFBB in England and Wales, CookSafe in Scotland, Safe Catering in Northern Ireland. Bring that pack, on the dates they name.

Have these for the dates they pick:

Opening checks.
Temperatures.
Deliveries.
The name on each line.
The 4-weekly review for those weeks.

A diary that says “all fine” over a 12°C reading is the page they will compare. Due diligence is section 21 of the Food Safety Act 1990: what you actually did. It is not a sentence on a website.

We do not claim an endorsement, a rating, or that digital records are automatically accepted. They are accepted when they are complete, dated, and accessible. If the kitchen was closed, the day says closed. It is not backfilled from the day before.