Food Standards Agency opening and closing checks

If you run a café, takeaway, pub, restaurant, bakery or care-home kitchen, the Food Standards Agency expects a safe start and a safe finish every day you trade. In Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) those two moments are called opening checks and closing checks. They are short lists, done before you prepare food and before you lock up, then written down.

This post sets out what the FSA packs actually ask for, which fridge figures come from food.gov.uk, how to record a fail without making it worse, and where a fridge-door diary fits if the paper pack is not getting filled in.

What opening and closing checks are for

UK food businesses must put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure based on HACCP principles. That is a legal duty under Article 5 of retained Regulation (EC) No 852/2004. For most small kitchens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the FSA’s practical answer is Safer Food, Better Business.

SFBB is a pack of safe methods (cooking, chilling, cleaning, avoiding cross-contamination) plus a diary. The diary is where you prove you followed those methods. Opening and closing checks are the first and last entries of each trading day.

They are not a separate law of their own. They are how you show, in the format the FSA already publishes, that someone looked at the fridges, the staff, the surfaces and the leftovers before and after service. When an officer scores confidence in management under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, they look at whether those checks were done, signed, and acted on when something was wrong.

In Scotland the equivalent pack is CookSafe from Food Standards Scotland. CookSafe has no opening and closing checks form. Five Star Diary’s Scottish checks are its own, based on CookSafe’s House Rules. The paperwork looks different, and reheating rules are stricter (see below).

Opening checks: before you start cooking

Do these before any food is prepared. The FSA’s caterers pack puts them in the diary as a short tick list you adapt to your kitchen. Typical opening checks, drawn from SFBB for caterers, look like this.

Fridges, chilled displays and freezers working properly. Read the air temperature or probe the food. The FSA advises a fridge between 0 and 5°C. 8°C is the legal maximum in England, Wales and Northern Ireland only; Scotland has no fixed chill figure (CookSafe recommends 5°C; 8°C or below controls most bacteria). If a fridge is above 8°C in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, do not just tick it. Move high-risk food if you can, find out why, and write what you did.

Other equipment working. Ovens, grills, hot-hold units, dishwashers, extraction. A cold oven at 8am is an opening check, not a surprise at noon.

Staff fit for work and in clean clothes. Anyone with diarrhoea or vomiting should stay off until 48 hours after symptoms stop. That is FSA fitness to work guidance, not a house rule. Opening is when you notice someone should not be on the pass.

Food preparation areas clean and ready. Surfaces, boards, sinks, cloths. If last night’s close was rushed, opening is when you catch it.

Probe thermometer working. The SFBB extra checks recommend testing the probe in boiling water and melting ice, reading within 1°C of 100°C and 0°C. If it is out, do not use it for cooking checks until it is replaced or put right.

Allergen information is accurate for all items on sale. This is a listed FSA opening check, not an optional extra.

You can add your own lines: pest monitors, gas isolation. Keep the list short enough that the person who unlocks will actually do it.

Closing checks: before you lock up

Closing checks stop tonight’s leftovers becoming tomorrow’s complaint. The FSA diary is a prompt, not a script. A typical close for a small kitchen:

No food left out. High-risk food sitting at room temperature is the classic fail. Cool food and place it in the fridge within 1 to 2 hours. The FSA advises a fridge between 0 and 5°C.

Food past its use-by date thrown away. Use-by is a safety date. Best-before is quality. Do not mix them up.

Dirty cloths out, clean ones in. Cloths spread bacteria. Closing is when they leave the kitchen.

Food covered, labelled and in the fridge. What it is, and the date. Tomorrow’s opening check is easier if tonight’s labels are honest.

Waste out, new bags in. Full bins overnight attract pests. That is a closing check and a pest check in one.

Equipment left safe. Fryers, gas, hot cupboards. This is as much fire safety as food safety, but it belongs on the same list so it happens.

If something failed (fridge warm, food dumped, pest signs), write the action. A blank line next to a problem is worse than the problem.

Opening and closing are not the whole diary. Extra checks through the day cover things you do when they happen: a delivery, a cooking temperature, hot holding. Do not dump those onto the opening list or it will never get finished before service.

When	What you are checking	If it fails
Opening	Fridge and freezer temperatures	Move food, call an engineer, write the action
Opening	Staff fit to work, clean clothes	Send them home, cover the shift
Opening	Surfaces, equipment, probe	Clean or replace before service
Closing	Food put away, use-by dates	Throw away or chill properly
Closing	Cloths, waste, covers and labels	Finish the job before you leave
Closing	Equipment left safe	Do not leave it for the morning

Adapt the table. Do not copy it blindly if your kitchen is different.

How to write them down

The FSA paper diary is free and valid. You tick opening, tick closing, sign, and add extra checks through the day. Every four weeks you review the diary.

What officers tend to pick up:

• Gaps. A blank Monday after a busy Sunday looks like the diary was filled in later.
• No name. “Someone checked” is not a record.
• Red temperatures with no action. The method is: see it, fix it, write it.
• Opening checks done after service has started. The FSA says to do them at the beginning of the day.

If you use a digital diary, the same rules apply. Time stamps help. A PIN instead of a squiggle helps. A warm fridge that cannot be saved until someone types the action helps. None of that is approved by the FSA or your council. Nobody approves food safety software. What they look at is whether you have a HACCP-based system, you follow it, and you can show the records.

Five Star Diary follows the FSA’s SFBB format (CookSafe in Scotland). Staff scan a QR sticker on the fridge, type the temperature and sign with a PIN. A reading that is out of range cannot be saved without saying what you did. That is the opening fridge check, done at the door rather than copied into a folder at 4pm.

For the numbers themselves, keep the FSA figures next to the probe. Our food safety temperatures page collects the chilled, hot-hold, cooking and Scottish reheat figures from the FSA and Food Standards Scotland.

What if you miss a day, or a fridge is warm

Missed days happen. Do not backfill yesterday’s ticks. Write that the day was missed and why, then get back on it. Inventing a record is worse than a gap you can explain.

If the fridge is above 8°C at opening in England, Wales or Northern Ireland:

1. Do not serve high-risk food from it until you know it is safe.
2. Check the actual food with a clean probe, not only the air reading.
3. If food has been too warm for too long, throw it away. Use the FSA chilling guidance, not a guess.
4. Write the reading, the food you discarded or moved, and who you called.
5. Use another fridge or ice if you can trade safely. If you cannot, do not open.

Your local environmental health officer is the authority for your business. This post does not replace your own safe methods or their advice.

Scotland: CookSafe, not SFBB

If you are in Scotland, use CookSafe, not the England and Wales SFBB pack. CookSafe has no opening and closing checks form. Five Star Diary’s Scottish checks are its own, based on CookSafe’s House Rules. Two differences matter in the kitchen:

• The pack and diary layout come from Food Standards Scotland.
• Reheating: the law requires food reheated before being served for immediate consumption or exposed for sale to reach at least 82°C, unless that would spoil the food, in which case CookSafe allows 70°C for 2 minutes. Put the right figure on your reheat checks if you reheat.

Hygiene ratings in Scotland use the Food Hygiene Information Scheme (pass or improvement required), not the 0-5 sticker used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Keep the checks where the work is

The paper SFBB diary is often in an office or a drawer. Opening checks only work if the person who unlocks the fridge is the person who records the reading.

That is why Five Star Diary lives on the fridge door: QR, temperature, PIN. Reviews are assembled from the records you already made. On Pro and Group the inspection pack is one click. Records stay yours to view and export.

Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial. From £9 a month per site, with no contract. Nothing here promises a food hygiene rating. Good daily checks are one part of confidence in management. The rating is always the officer’s.

If you want to see the staff flow before you set anything up, try the public kitchen at the demo. Scan, type a temperature, sign with a PIN, and see what happens when the fridge is too warm.