PREVRA EHO Inspection Checklist: What Environmental Health Officers Actually Check
A practical checklist based on the FSA Food Law Code of Practice. Covers every area an EHO inspects during a scheduled or unannounced visit to your food business.
Why EHO preparation determines your Food Hygiene Rating
An EHO can arrive at any reasonable time without notice. They inspect under the Food Law Code of Practice, scoring you across three areas: hygiene practices, structural compliance, and management confidence. A single inspection determines your rating for years — and the difference between a 3 and a 5 often comes down to record-keeping, not cleanliness.
Counter-intuitively, the section most businesses fail is 'confidence in management' — not the physical state of the kitchen. If your SFBB folder is incomplete or your team cannot explain your HACCP procedures, you lose points even if every surface is spotless.
Using this checklist before and during an EHO visit
Treat this as your pre-inspection walkthrough. Go through every item the morning before service — not once a month. Focus especially on temperature records (must show twice-daily checks), allergen information (must be accessible to every customer), and cleaning schedules (must be signed and dated).
During the inspection, use the checklist to track what the EHO looks at. Take notes on any verbal advice they give — it often appears as a written recommendation later. If you use digital SFBB, your records are organised, searchable, and presentable in seconds, which directly improves your 'confidence in management' score.
How EHOs assign your Food Hygiene Rating
Hygiene practices cover handwashing, cross-contamination controls, cooking, cooling, and reheating procedures. Structural compliance covers the fabric of the building, ventilation, lighting, and drainage. Confidence in management covers your SFBB system, training records, and whether the business can operate safely without the EHO checking. Each area is scored separately and the lowest score determines your overall rating — you cannot compensate for a poor structure score with excellent paperwork.
Prevra · Early access
Prevra is building a digital SFBB app.
The app is not ready yet. See the planned features and contact us about early access.
See planned features