PREVRA Opening a Restaurant Checklist: Everything You Need Before Your First Service
A comprehensive pre-opening checklist covering FSA registration, SFBB documentation, kitchen setup, equipment commissioning, and staff training for new UK food businesses.
Why a structured opening process matters for your first EHO inspection
Your local authority will inspect your premises within weeks of registration — often within the first 28 days. If you open without a complete SFBB system, documented training records, and properly commissioned equipment, you are starting from a position of non-compliance. You cannot retroactively fix the first month's records.
The counter-intuitive truth about restaurant openings: the gas safety check should come before the fridge check on day one. If there is a gas leak, you will be evacuating — the fridge temperature will not matter. Prioritise life safety systems first, then food safety systems, then service readiness. Too many new operators install the coffee machine before verifying the fire suppression system works.
Using this checklist for your restaurant launch
Start at least four weeks before your target opening date. Work through the sections in order: legal registration, documentation, equipment, supplies, staff, and final readiness. Each section has dependencies — you cannot train staff on SFBB procedures until you have written them. You cannot commission the dishwasher until the water supply and drainage are signed off.
Keep this checklist with your SFBB folder. Your first EHO inspector will want to see that you planned your food safety systems before you served your first customer. A completed pre-opening checklist demonstrates due diligence from day zero. A digital SFBB system makes this even easier: your opening documentation, temperature logs, and training records are all in one place from the moment you register with the FSA.
Mistakes that delay your opening
Registering too late. You must register your food business with the FSA at least 28 days before opening. Registering late flags you to the EHO before you have even started.
No supplier approval records. New restaurants often buy from whoever delivers fastest during setup. You need documented supplier approvals — including allergen information — before your first delivery arrives.
Untrained staff on day one. The FSA requires that all food handlers are supervised, instructed, and/or trained in food hygiene. Opening day is not the time to discover that your new kitchen porter does not know which colour chopping board is for raw meat.
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