10 Tips to a Winning Restaurant Health Inspection
Are you ready for your next health inspection? Is your kitchen spotless, your grease trap clean, and your hand sinks shining?
It happens every spring. They appear from nowhere. Unexpected, they arrive just before a busy lunch is scheduled to begin. Usually you're just about to make an important point in a pre-shift meeting. Your kitchen is playing catch-up since all of the weekend deliveries are being dropped off. Yes, it is a Thursday or a Friday and as the casually-corporate-official-looking, clipboard-carrying person presents their credentials, you hope under your breath that everything in the kitchen is in order.
The health inspector has arrived.
Although municipalities are all facing budgetary shortfalls, health inspectors are not only a necessity but a government profit center. And although everyone has noticed their visits to be less frequent over the past 18 months, they could be out in full force this season looking for perfect kitchens and costly imperfections in those places that don't follow the rules. It's not only a way to keep restaurants on track but a healthy way to boost funds in city coffers. Fines for health violations range from a mere $50.00 to multiple hundreds of dollars. In Los Angeles, where health scores are rated on an alphabetical system, a failing restaurant can pay $162.00 for a re-inspection and hopefully a better score.
And since it has probably been a while since they have visited your restaurant, it's culinary nature to slack off in the clean corner department.
Here are 10 tips to keep that health report shining and those citation costs to a minimum.
1. Schedule a mandatory staff meeting. Make it more official than your regular meetings. Have an agenda, a time and action plan, and give assignments and tasks to each employee on what needs to be inspected and cleaned in order to comply with health department regulations.
2. Review your last three health reports and use them as a guide to clean your kitchen, server stations, bathrooms, storage and cooler areas. These reports can also be used to pass out those cleaning tasks to each employee.
3. Check your closets, corners, coolers, under the bar sinks, and other storage units. Check the corners of your washable white board. Corners often need to be adhered to the wall as floor mopping can dampen the adhesive.
4. Make sure your drains are flowing freely. Call your exterminator and ask for an inspection. Keep the latest exterminator report available to show the inspector.
5. Check all of your refrigeration with new thermometers. Often a cooler thermometer will appear to be working properly, but the inspector's digital thermometer could cost you points and profits. Make sure your chef has a meat thermometer at hand. Placing one in the pocket of the chef coat is a good place to store them. Linen companies should make this an accessory option – especially if chicken is on the menu.
6. Check your water temperature. Over time water heaters can lose their output ability, and although water may feel hot to your hand it may not meet your health department standards.
7. Bleach your coffee cups. It probably isn't a citable problem, but any significant sign of dirt and wear can affect the way the inspector perceives your operation.
8. Make sure your cooler shelves are clean and free from any grime, dirt, or residue from vegetables, meat, spilled milk, etc.
9. Be proactive. After your cleaning regimen is complete, call your health inspector and ask him/her to schedule an inspection. Let them know that you are attempting to achieve a high health department score and that you would like an inspection in the near future.
10. Inform your staff that the inspector will be coming. Make sure your staff is aware that the inspector may be showing up. Remind them to wash their hands frequently, and keep water splashed in the hand sinks – nothing is worse than having dry hand sinks. Also buy four or five bottles of hand sanitizers – place them in your server stations, bathrooms, and kitchen. And use them.
