Health Inspection Readiness Checklist

Walk the line, dish pit, walk-in, and dry storage. Look for chipped FRP, missing cove base, water staining on ceiling tiles, and grease buildup behind the fryer and flat top. These are the spots inspectors photograph first.

All bulbs over food prep, storage, and the line must be shatter-shielded or coated. A missing shield over a prep table is an automatic critical violation in most jurisdictions because of glass-fragment risk.

Check dry storage, walk-in, and chemical storage. Cases on the floor are a common citation — pull pallets or wire racks under every stack. Also confirm the mop sink is not being used as a storage shelf.

FDA Food Code requires cold-holding at 41°F or below. Read the thermometer probe, not the digital wall display — wall displays drift. If the temp is above 41°F, pull TCS items and call refrigeration before service.

Hit every reach-in on the line, the bar low-boy, and the dessert reach-in. Inspectors check each unit independently. Note the unit ID with the reading.

Cooked TCS food must cool from 140°F to 70°F within 2 hours and from 70°F to 41°F within an additional 4 hours. The log is the only defense if an inspector or a guest complaint lands. Check that yesterday's stocks, braises, and rice are all documented.

Ready-to-eat TCS food held more than 24 hours needs a 7-day discard date. Pull anything past day 7. Confirm older product is in front, fresh deliveries pushed to the back.

Storage order top-to-bottom: ready-to-eat, seafood, whole beef/pork, ground meats, poultry. A pan of raw chicken above a tray of greens is the classic critical violation. Re-stack if needed.

Green for produce, red for raw meat, yellow for poultry, blue for seafood, white for dairy and prepped product. Replace any board with deep knife scoring — it can't be sanitized.

20 seconds, hot water, soap, paper towel. Watch one full handwash per station. Hand sinks must be stocked with soap and towels and unobstructed — buckets, prep, or dish racks blocking the hand sink is a frequent citation.

Gloves, tongs, deli paper, or utensils only. Salad plating, sandwich build, and garnish are the usual offenders. New gloves between tasks; gloves are not a substitute for handwashing.

Per FDA Food Code, employees with vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever, or open infected wounds must be restricted or excluded. The Big Six pathogens (Norovirus, Salmonella Typhi, Salmonella nontyphoidal, Shigella, STEC, Hepatitis A) require exclusion and health-department reporting.

Document who was excluded, the symptoms reported, the date sent home, and the return-to-work clearance. Big Six pathogens trigger a call to the local health department within 24 hours in most jurisdictions.

Use a test strip — quat sanitizer 200-400 ppm, chlorine 50-100 ppm, iodine 12.5-25 ppm. Wash-rinse-sanitize order, and water temp at the wash bay must hit 110°F minimum.

High-temp machines need 180°F final rinse at the manifold (160°F at the plate surface). Low-temp chemical machines need correct sanitizer concentration. Run a temp-strip plate through and verify the gauge reading is honest.

Every spray bottle gets a chemical label — not a Sharpie scribble. Chemicals stored below and away from food, single-use items, and clean linens. SDS binder (formerly MSDS) accessible to staff; OSHA HazCom requires it.

Capture what was found, who owns the fix, and the target close date. Critical violations (temperature, handwashing, cross-contamination, pests) get a 24-hour close. Non-critical items get a 7-day close.

Before/after photos of the fix go in the inspection-readiness binder. This is the artifact you hand the inspector to show the issue was found internally and resolved.