Eat Safe – Health, Hygiene and Cleaning Compliance Checklist
A structured evaluation tool designed to measure your food business's adherence to health, hygiene, and cleaning standards, drawing on the framework of the Eat Safe Brisbane Food Safety Checklist.
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How to Use This Checklist
- For each measure, set the response that reflects what you see, not what you expect to be in place. You can mark the measure as compliant, record a minor non-compliance, or record a major non-compliance; where relevant, a critical non-compliance option is also available. Anything other than a compliant response should trigger a corrective action, which you record and follow up.
- Walk the premises and observe conditions at the time of inspection rather than relying on what you remember from previous reviews.
- Speak to staff on shift about hand washing, jewellery and grooming rules, and what they do if they feel unwell.
- Open fridges, coolrooms and freezers, and inspect benches, shelves, cooking equipment, utensils, crockery and boards for cleanliness and damage.
- Check hand washing stations in each food handling area for soap, warm running water, single-use towels and an accessible basin.
- Record your findings against each measure and log any corrective actions you identify, then follow them up until they are closed out.
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What this checklist is
This is a structured evaluation tool for measuring your food business's adherence to health, hygiene and cleaning standards, drawing on the framework of the Eat Safe Brisbane Food Safety Checklist. It takes you through a defined set of checks covering how food handlers behave, how staff health is managed, and how the premises, fittings, equipment and utensils are cleaned, sanitised and maintained. Each measure is assessed against a simple response scale so that gaps are recorded clearly and can be acted on.
Why health, hygiene and cleaning matter
Contamination of food and food-contact surfaces is one of the main routes by which a food business can make people unwell. The measures in this checklist focus directly on that risk: they ask whether food handlers follow practices that reduce it, whether people who are unwell are kept away from food, and whether surfaces, equipment and utensils are genuinely clean and sanitary.
How to use this checklist
Work through the checklist one section at a time, observing what is actually happening on the premises rather than what you expect to be happening. For each measure, set the response that reflects what you see. You can mark the measure as compliant, record a minor non-compliance, or record a major non-compliance; where relevant, a critical non-compliance option is also available. Anything other than a compliant response should trigger a corrective action, which you record and follow up until it is closed out.
Health and hygiene requirements
This section covers the people side of food safety: the practices food handlers must follow to prevent contamination.
Contamination risk management
You need effective measures in place to minimise the risk that food handlers contaminate food or food-contact surfaces. This is the overarching control against which the more specific hygiene measures sit.
Staff health status
Staff members who are suffering from a food-borne illness, gastrointestinal symptoms or contagious conditions must be excluded from all food handling duties. Check that you know how this is monitored on each shift.
Personal hygiene practices
All food handlers need to exercise proper personal hygiene. That includes:
Hand washing facilities
Hand washing is only effective if the facilities support it. Each food handling area should have adequate and fully equipped hand washing facilities, including:
Staff obligations and food safety awareness
Food handlers need to be informed of their obligations regarding food safety, and you need to take active measures to ensure they understand and follow the procedures that prevent food contamination. The checklist therefore treats awareness as something you build and verify, not something you assume.
Cleaning, sanitising and maintenance
This section covers the state of the premises, equipment and utensils, and the routines that keep them safe for food contact.
Structural cleanliness
Floors, walls and ceilings throughout the premises should be maintained in a consistently clean and sanitary condition. These surfaces are often overlooked, but they set the baseline for the rest of the premises.
Equipment and fittings cleanliness
All fixtures, fittings and equipment should be maintained in a clean condition. This includes:
General premises cleanliness
The premises as a whole should be kept clean and hygienic at all times, including storage areas, staff areas and customer-facing spaces. A clean dining or retail area is part of a clean food business.
Equipment and utensil sanitation
Your business needs to provide clean and sanitary equipment, including eating and drinking utensils and food-contact surfaces. Sanitation matters because it addresses the surfaces food actually touches.
Food contact surface sanitisation
Food-contact surfaces of utensils and equipment should be sanitised using the correct methods and appropriate sanitisers, at the required frequency.
Utensil and equipment condition
No damaged, cracked, chipped or broken utensils, crockery, glassware or cutting boards should be in use. Damaged items can harbour contamination and shed material into food, so they should be taken out of service.
Grease trap maintenance
If your business is responsible for maintaining the grease trap, it should be serviced effectively and on a regular schedule in accordance with best practice.
Premises and equipment maintenance
Premises, fixtures, fittings and equipment should be maintained in a good state of repair and working order. This covers:
When to use this checklist
Use it as a repeatable evaluation you can run on a regular schedule, before opening a new site, after a change of staff or layout, or whenever you want an objective picture of your health, hygiene and cleaning practices. Because it is structured, the results can be compared over time so you can see whether corrective actions have actually closed the gaps they were meant to.
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