Depending on where you operate, the first thing that the local health inspector will ask for when they show up randomly is something to the tune of “let’s take a look at your temp logs and line checks for the past month”.
Depending on how organized your operations are this can be an easy task or a very stressful task.
I have a really good friend who is in the aviation industry. They are required to keep very detailed logs of everything, very neatly in a binder that’s easily digested by anyone that requests the information. This same friend also boats as a hobby. When you have a boat you occasionally get boarded by the policing authority for the body of water you are boating. They are checking for life jackets, general safety, and they will want to see documentation.
My friend takes the same approach to his boat documentation that he is required to do for his job in aviation. His thought is, and it has proven true over and over again, that if he presents clean organized data to the authorities they know he has his stuff together and there are no issues. It works and the authorities are always impressed and appreciative of his organization.
Now imagine taking this approach to your restaurant operations data? The health inspector shows up unannounced and asks for temp logs and line checks for the last month. Your answer should be “no problem, here they are, you can see every check that we have done and when with the time date stamp, and the scores. Would you like me to email it to you?”.
Now you aren’t providing them with a bunch of paper with coffee stains, half filled out, horrible handwriting, etc. Instead it’s a nice report on a tablet. You are not making the inspector wait 15-20 mins while you dig up the information because who knows what they are doing during that time.
This is all possible. We would like to give you for free our SMART Pre-shift Checklist. Just click here to get it emailed to you. Feel free to use this in anyway you see fit. But know that you can get this into an automated format that will allow this data to be actionable and easily accessible.
We hope you find it helpful.
Keep on Inspecting!