Food safety records for restaurants and bars
Deliveries before prep, a line that runs hot through service, stocks cooled for tomorrow and allergen questions at the pass. Each is a check someone can record as it happens.
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A close that runs past midnight
Your records follow your trading day, not the calendar.
A kitchen that closes at 1am is still recording the night before. In Settings a venue chooses when its day ends, anywhere from midnight to 6am, so the closing fridge readings and the cleaning sign off made after midnight are filed under the evening they belong to. A change made during service waits until the next day, so nothing still to be recorded tonight is counted as missed.
A day in your kitchen
- 01
Deliveries before prep
Whoever signs for them records the supplier and the temperature on arrival.Produce and protein arrive while the kitchen sets up. Whoever signs for them records the supplier and the temperature on arrival, or how long it took to deliver.
Recorded in Today's Tasks and checklists
- 02
Opening temperatures
Each unit in the equipment register gets a reading at opening, against its own safe range.The cool room, the under bench fridges on the line and the freezers each get a reading at opening. Every unit in the equipment register carries its own check and its own safe range.
Recorded in Temperature checks from the equipment register
- 03
Stock cooled for tomorrow
The cooling log records what was cooled and how long each stage took.A stock or braise made in the afternoon is cooled from 60°C to 21°C within two hours, then to 5°C within a further four. The cooling log records what was cooled and how many minutes each stage took.
Recorded in Today's Tasks and checklists
- 04
Allergen questions at the pass
When a guest asks what is in a dish, the answer comes from its recipe card, which carries the allergens of the base sauces and dressings it is built from.When a guest asks what is in a dish, the answer comes from its recipe card, which carries the allergens of the base sauces and dressings it is built from.
Recorded in Recipes and menus with allergens
- 05
A fridge running warm in service
A reading outside the unit's range is flagged as it is saved, and the fix goes on a corrective action.A reading outside the unit's range is flagged as it is saved. Moving the food, calling the technician and checking the unit again go on a corrective action with a due date and a close.
Recorded in Corrective actions
Who the bar roster can ask for
Food Safety Supervisor
A shift can require someone holding the certificate. The certificate is kept in Documents with its expiry date, and once that date passes it stops counting toward the shift.
Approved Manager
The venue switches this on for the hours it trades. What your licence asks for is set by the liquor licensing authority, and this page does not cover it.
RSA
Recorded against each person who serves liquor, with a set period after starting in which someone may be rostered while they complete it.
Auto fill builds the week around these requirements, and a shift with nobody holding one shows as a gap on the roster before the night.
A starter checklist set
For a restaurant or bar we would keep most of the standard lists and add a check for the bar fridges.
Start free trialOpening fridge and cool room temperatures
Opening freezer check, food hard frozen
Bar garnish fridge temperature
Handwash stations stocked
Staff fitness for work
Receiving deliveries log
Hot holding temperatures
Cooking and pathogen reduction log
Cooling log, on days you cool food
Reheating log, when reheating for hot holding
Daily cleaning and sanitising sign off
Closing fridge and freezer temperatures
Weekly deep clean, including behind the line
Pest check
Stock rotation and use by audit
Probe thermometer calibration
Allergen matrix review
Food Safety Supervisor and training register
Chemical safety check
Every new venue opens with the same standard daily, weekly and monthly lists. This is how we suggest shaping them, and every check and every list can be changed or deleted.
When a cook says they are unwell
- 1
They tell their supervisor
A food handler who is unwell reports it, and stays away from food where contamination is likely.
- 2
The business keeps them off food
That duty is the business's own, and the daily staff fitness check is where it is recorded.
- 3
A known foodborne disease
A handler with one, or carrying one, returns to handling food on a medical practitioner's advice.
- 4
Four named pathogens
If Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella or verotoxigenic E. coli is found or suspected in a person, tell the WA Department of Health orally straight away, then in writing within 24 hours.
Incident reporting keeps a suspected foodborne illness as its own kind of report, apart from ordinary complaints.
What applies to you
A restaurant, or a bar with a kitchen that prepares food, is usually category one under Standard 3.2.2A, because it turns unpackaged potentially hazardous food into food that is ready to eat. The WA Department of Health guide names restaurants and takeaway shops among its category one examples. A bar that pours drinks and sells only packaged snacks may sit in neither category, and Standards 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 still apply to it.
- Food safety supervisorApplies
- Appointed before the business carries out a prescribed activity, reasonably available to advise and supervise while it does, and holding a certificate issued within the last five years. A kitchen that trades late may need more than one to cover every shift.
- Food handler trainingApplies
- Every cook, chef and kitchen hand needs a food safety course, or skills and knowledge that match the work, before they first carry out a prescribed activity. No certificate is required.
- Records, or another way to show controlApplies
- Keep records of the prescribed activities you actually do, such as receiving, storage, cooking, cooling, reheating and cleaning, or show an authorised officer another way. Records you keep are held for at least three months.
- A written food safety program
- An ordinary WA restaurant or bar needs no written food safety program and no third party audit. That duty comes from Standard 3.3.1 and reaches only listed facilities, such as hospitals, aged care homes and childcare centres, that serve six or more vulnerable persons.
- Other regulators
Selling liquor brings the Liquor Control Act 1988 (WA) and its licensing authority. This page does not cover it.
- Also worth knowing
Allergen information must be displayed with the food or given when a customer asks (Standard 1.2.1, section 9(6)). Use the names in Column 4 of Schedule 9: gluten for barley, oats and rye, soy for soybean, milk rather than dairy, and each tree nut by name.
This is general information about the law, not advice about your business. Confirm your category and what applies to you with your local government.
Guardian for restaurants and bars
For a restaurant, the officer's review can take in the cooling and reheating logs against what the menu says you cook, the allergens on the recipe cards, and how readings outside a unit's range were closed.
On the Guardian plan a Hospitality Compliance Support Officer (HCSO) reviews your records online, wherever you are, and on site in Western Australia where visits are available. The officer is not an authorised officer: they cannot certify your venue or speak for your local government.
Related kinds of venue
Asked about restaurants and bars
Do I need an allergen register?
No. The Food Standards Code asks for no allergen record. What it does ask is that allergen information be displayed with the food or given when a customer asks, in the Code's names, such as gluten, soy and milk. Keeping allergens on your recipe cards is a practical way to give the same answer every time.
Does a restaurant need a written food safety program?
Not in Western Australia. The written program in Standard 3.3.1 reaches listed facilities serving vulnerable persons, and a restaurant is not one of them however many people it serves. Its rules are Standards 3.2.2, 3.2.2A and 3.2.3.
How long do we keep temperature records?
Where you keep records to meet Standard 3.2.2A, keep each one for at least three months from the day it was made. That is a minimum, and keeping them longer is allowed.
Is the 2 hour and 4 hour rule the law?
No. It is guidance that a business may rely on as an alternative method. The times written into the Code for cooked food are the cooling steps: 60°C to 21°C within two hours, then to 5°C within a further four.
Our bar has a small kitchen. Does the bar need its own supervisor?
The duty sits with the business rather than with each room. One supervisor can cover the venue if they are reasonably available to advise and supervise while prescribed activities are carried out. A venue open long hours may need more than one to cover every shift.