Commercial kitchen inspections in the UK are carried out by two separate bodies checking two separate things: your local authority environmental health officer (EHO) inspects food hygiene and safety under the Food Safety Act 1990 and related regulations, while the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or your local authority health and safety team inspects workplace health and safety under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Both inspectors have the legal power to enter your premises unannounced and both can issue improvement notices, prohibition notices, or prosecute for serious failures. Understanding what each one actually checks is the fastest way to prepare and pass.
Who inspects commercial kitchens and why
Food hygiene inspections are carried out by your local authority under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland uses a similar Food Hygiene Information Scheme). These inspections result in the 0-5 star rating displayed publicly and searchable online. Health and safety inspections are separate — they focus on the safety of staff and visitors rather than food contamination — and are carried out under powers granted by Section 20 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which allows inspectors to enter premises at any reasonable time, examine records, take samples, and interview staff.
Many kitchens conflate the two, but a business can hold a 5-star food hygiene rating while still failing a health and safety inspection on issues like gas safety, fire precautions, or manual handling. Both matter equally in law.
What health and safety inspectors check in a commercial kitchen
Inspectors typically work through a structured checklist covering the following areas:
- Slips, trips and falls — the single largest cause of injury in commercial kitchens. Inspectors check flooring condition, anti-slip matting near sinks and fryers, spill procedures, and footwear policy.
- Fire safety — under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, inspectors check that a suitable fire risk assessment exists, that fire extinguishers are the correct type and serviced, that extraction canopies are cleaned regularly to prevent grease fire buildup, and that fire exits are unobstructed.
- Gas and electrical safety — annual gas safety checks by a Gas Safe registered engineer, PAT testing records for portable appliances, and correct isolation procedures for maintenance work.
- Hot equipment and burns — fryer guards, splash shields, thermostatic controls, and whether staff have been trained on safe filling, draining and cleaning of hot equipment.
- Manual handling — how heavy stock, gas bottles, and equipment are lifted and moved, assessed under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
- COSHH compliance — safe storage, labelling and use of cleaning chemicals and descalers under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, including data sheets and staff training records.
- Sharp equipment — knife storage, mandoline and slicer guarding, and safe use procedures.
- Documentation — the written risk assessment itself, staff training records, accident book, and evidence that findings have actually been acted on, not just written down.
The legal basis for a kitchen risk assessment
Every commercial kitchen employer has a legal duty under Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment covering the risks to employees and to anyone else who might be affected — including delivery drivers, cleaners, and customers in open-kitchen settings. Where five or more people are employed, the significant findings must be recorded in writing under Regulation 3(6). Inspectors will ask to see this document on the day of the visit; if it does not exist, or is clearly generic and not specific to your kitchen, that alone can trigger an improvement notice.
Inspectors are trained to spot risk assessments that have been copied from a template without genuine thought — for example, a document that mentions "hot oil hazards" without naming the actual fryers on site, the specific control measures in place, or the person responsible. A risk assessment tailored to your actual kitchen layout, equipment and staffing is far more likely to satisfy an inspector than a generic downloaded template.
What happens if you fail an inspection
Depending on severity, an inspector can take one of several actions. Informal advice is given for minor issues with a follow-up expected voluntarily. An improvement notice requires specific action within a set timeframe, typically 21 days or more. A prohibition notice can stop a specific activity or piece of equipment being used immediately if there is a risk of serious personal injury — this can mean a fryer or gas appliance being taken out of service on the spot. For the most serious failures, prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 can follow, with unlimited fines for organisations and up to two years' imprisonment for individuals under Section 33.
According to HSE enforcement data, the food and drink sector consistently features among the higher-risk sectors for workplace injury, with slips, trips, falls, and contact with hot surfaces or machinery being the most commonly reported causes of injury reportable under RIDDOR.
How to prepare for a commercial kitchen inspection
Preparation comes down to having genuine, working systems rather than paperwork created only to be shown to an inspector. Practical steps include: keeping the written risk assessment up to date and specific to your current equipment and layout, maintaining an accident book and reviewing entries for recurring patterns, checking that gas and PAT testing certificates are current and filed together, running a visible daily cleaning and deep-clean schedule for extraction canopies and fryers, and training new starters on hazards before they are left unsupervised on hot equipment. A risk assessment that is reviewed and updated whenever equipment, layout or staffing changes — as required under MHSWR 1999 Regulation 3(3) — is the single strongest piece of evidence you can show an inspector that your kitchen is genuinely managing its risks, not just documenting them.
If you are unsure whether your current risk assessment covers everything an inspector will ask about, our do I need a risk assessment guide sets out exactly who is legally required to have one, and our ultimate guide to risk assessment walks through the full 5-step legal process in detail.
Producing a compliant risk assessment quickly
Many kitchen operators find that the biggest barrier to a compliant, inspector-ready risk assessment is time, not knowledge — writing a document from scratch that names the correct regulations, identifies the specific hazards in your kitchen, and applies the hierarchy of controls correctly can take hours. Our risk assessment generator produces a fully written, regulation-referenced PDF and editable Word document for £29 in under two minutes, so you can focus your time on implementing the controls rather than formatting the document.
Also see: The ultimate guide to risk assessment · Do I need a risk assessment? · Risk assessment legal requirements · Risk assessment generator