Food Safety Checklists

Food safety checklists help ensure proper food handling, preparation, personal hygiene, kitchen sanitation and good food safety practices.

What is a Food Safety Checklist

A food safety checklist is used to assess whether kitchen staff follow proper food safety procedures. These procedures include training employees about food safety; keeping records of temperature; daily tasks; cleaning and sanitizing equipment and surfaces; preventing contamination of foods; maintaining cleanliness; and storing foods properly.

Food safety checklists can help ensure that activities related to food are being performed correctly. They allow companies to track how often certain tasks are completed, identify areas where improvements could be made, and determine if there are any potential food safety hazards present.

Benefits of Food Safety Checklists

According to the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) report on food safety an estimate there are 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses and 420 000 deaths could occur in a year.

Food safety checklists can help ensure that employees maintain good food handling practices. Food hygiene regulations can be maintained by creating a list of all precautions needed to be taken when storing, handling and preparing food. A food safety checklist will prompt employees to ensure high food handling standards are followed and maintained. A food safety checklist can offer many benefits in controlling food safety hazards in the workplace.

An important benefit of using a food safety checklist is that it helps prevent cross-contamination between raw and cooked foods. When food handlers do not follow proper food safety procedures, they may contaminate other foods with bacteria or viruses. The use of a food safety checklist ensures that workers follow safe food handling techniques and detail the steps that need to be taken to store, prepare, cook and serve food safely.

The Key to Food Hygiene and Safety 

To have good food hygiene and food safety it is important to have good practices in place, particularly regarding time and temperature control, cleaning and sanitising, and personal hygiene of food handlers. It is also important to have good food safety practices when storing, handling and preparing food and sound cleaning and hygiene protocols.

The key to food hygiene and safety includes the following good practices:

  • Food is properly stored in clean, intact containers with appropriate coverings,
  • No raw meat comes into contact with other foods,
  • All foods are kept at proper temperatures,
  • Evidence of temperature checking in the form of a log is kept,
  • Cross-contamination doesn’t occur by reusing food preparation tools and equipment,
  • Cleaning, sanitising and hand washing are done frequently and correctly,
  • the kitchen, food storage and restaurant areas are clean,
  • Pest control precautions are in place, and
  • Food labelling is accurate and includes use-by and/or pack dates.

Six Food Safety Checklists

Six food safety checklist inspections used by the food industry found in the DIGI CLIP mobile forms Form Libary:

  1. Food Safety & Hygiene Checklist – Used to help ensure the safe storage, handling, preparation and serving of food by kitchen staff.
  2. Kitchen Inspection Checklist – Used to asses to assess if a commercial kitchen follows cleaning protocols to ensure equipment is properly cleaned and sanitised before and after use.
  3. Kitchen Cleaning Checklist Inspection – Used to help to maintain a clean and sanitise restaurant/commercial kitchen.
  4. Refrigeration Temperature Log – Used to routinely record the temperatures of refrigeration and freezers.
  5. Hot Food Temperature Log – Used to record the temperature of food while being kept warm.
  6. Kitchen Open Checklist – Used as a guide in readying the kitchen facility for operation.

Food Safety Checklist by DIGI CLIP

Food Safety Checklist - Refrigeration Temp. Log

DIGI CLIP mobile forms provide safety and compliance checklists and other forms. Complete digital food safety checklists and inspections with DIGI CLIP mobile forms.

DIGI CLIP mobile forms – What We Do?

DIGI CLIP mobile forms is an easy-to-use inexpensive safety checklist app and cloud-based software. DIGI CLIP is used across different industries to capture safety data and other information to help improve safety, compliance and operational efficiencies.

DIGI CLIP will allow you to remove paper reporting from your business – no more lost, late missing or illegible checklists. The DIGI CLIP mobile app allows for images, comments and digital signatures to be added to checklists from a phone or tablet.

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