Your Guide to Prepping For an EHO Home Kitchen Inspection

Industry-Wide health and safety regulations are put in place to protect us. That’s why if you run a catering business from home or any kind of food business from home, you will still be subject to the exact same health and safety regulations as a five-star restaurant would in the heart of London. For people who are running a catering business from home, they will find that this involves having an EHO home kitchen inspection. This is basically a health and safety check to make sure that you are handling, processing, cooking, and packaging food in the correct way.

What is an EHO Home Kitchen Inspection?

Okay, so what actually is a health and safety environmental health home inspection?

Basically, regardless of what you’re doing, be at running a takeaway, selling cakes, or making sandwiches, you will need to get a visit from an environmental health officer, who will inspect the kitchen of your property to make sure that you are carrying out any and all food operations in a safe and legal fashion. Take note that this definition includes the preparation, cooking, handling, selling, storing, and distribution of food products.

These types of inspections are categorised into three different areas to make sure that you are suitably prepared to process food. You will be judged on how hygienically the food is handled, your knowledge of health and safety food management. The physical condition of your premises will also be taken into consideration.

How do I Prepare?

Preparation for a task of this nature can be understandably quite challenging. It’s important to make sure that you have taken a look at some of the different reading materials for health and safety, taken as many courses as you can, and then implement these into your daily practices and procedures.

At the end of the day, you will primarily have to make sure that you have got your kitchen up to industry standard. This may seem like a challenge, may require new equipment, and potentially might be something that you need to put a significant investment in to make work, but you are still subject to the same health and safety standards, so you have to follow the rules. It is recommended to take training courses to understand health and safety food management practices so that you can implement them into what you do, and where applicable, what your staff does.

In conclusion, preparing for a health and safety environmental health kitchen inspection is definitely something that a lot of people will be looking forward to with some level of apprehension. However, if you just stay calm and do what you need to elevate your kitchen to the industry standard, you will be fine. Remember the three areas that you are judged in, and then make sure that all of these areas have been suitably met according to relevant standards. Preparation is everything, and if you are meticulous about how you prepare, you should have no problem meeting the standards laid down.