Free download
The EHO inspection checklist
A practical, print-and-walk-round checklist built around the three areas an inspecting officer assesses: hygiene and food safety practices, the cleanliness and condition of the building, and confidence in management. Five pages, no fluff, and a blank action list at the back. Free — just tell me where to send it.
Written by
Azhar Saleem, Food Safety and Technical Director at Pear Consultancy — 10+ years in UK food manufacturing technical and quality roles.
Get your copy
Download the checklist
What's inside
What the checklist covers
- Hygiene and food safety practices
- Temperature control, cooling and reheating, raw and ready-to-eat separation, stock and date control, traceability, allergens and personal hygiene.
- Cleanliness and condition of the building
- Cleaning schedules and the jobs that get forgotten, structure and repair, water and waste, pest control, ventilation and staff facilities.
- Confidence in management
- Your food safety management system, records, training, registration and whether you could produce the paperwork within minutes.
- An action list you can actually use
- A blank table at the back: reference, action, owner and date. Anything you cannot honestly tick becomes a job with a name against it.
Who it's for
Who should use it
- Restaurants, takeaways, cafés and mobile caterers with an inspection due or overdue
- New businesses waiting on a first visit and first rating
- Kitchen managers taking over a site and wanting to know where they stand
- Anyone who has been rated 1, 2 or 3 and wants to close the gaps before a re-visit
It is a general preparation aid based on UK food hygiene requirements and good practice. It is not an official Food Hygiene Rating Scheme assessment, it does not predict a rating, and it does not describe how any individual council carries out an inspection. Always work to your own food safety management system and to guidance from your local authority and the Food Standards Agency.
Keep going
Read next
What happens in an EHO inspection
Step by step through a real visit: what an officer looks at, what they ask staff, and how the score is decided.
Mock EHO inspection — £295
A rehearsal of the real visit: scored report, prioritised action plan and a staff debrief before I leave.
How to get a 5 star food hygiene rating
The three things that are scored, and what a 5 actually requires beyond a clean kitchen.
HACCP plan writing — from £395
A documented food safety system built around your actual menu and flow, not a downloaded template.
Next step
Want the checklist walked with you, in your kitchen?
Tell me where you are — a booked-in EHO visit, a rating you need to fix, or allergens you are not confident in. No obligation, no jargon.