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Newfoundland and Labrador Health Inspection Readiness Check

How often an environmental health officer comes to your door in Newfoundland and Labrador depends on your risk category: four times a year, twice a year, or once every two years. Whatever the gap between visits, the report lists critical and non-critical items, and it stays online for two years.

This check asks about the things officers commonly write up, and about the province's rule that someone with current food safety training is on site whenever you're open. It takes about three minutes, and your score and main gaps show up as soon as you're done.

Check your kitchen

Turn on JavaScript to work through the questions one at a time and get your score.

Which describes you?
Is someone with a current food safety course certificate on site at all times while you're open?

The owner counts. The course must be on the province's approved list; free SkillsPassNL modules don't qualify.

Do you check and write down fridge, freezer and hot-holding temperatures every day?

With a probe thermometer, at set times, on a log someone signs.

When you cool cooked food in bulk, do you check that it cools fast enough?

Soups, stocks, rice and braises cooled for the next day.

Is every handwashing sink stocked with soap and paper towels, and used only for handwashing?
Do staff know to report vomiting, diarrhea or other illness symptoms before a shift, and do you keep sick staff off food?
Do you test sanitizer strength and dishwasher temperatures or chemical levels?

Test strips for sanitizer buckets and sinks, and the dishwasher gauge or strips.

Do you follow a written cleaning schedule that staff sign off?
Is stored food covered, labelled and dated, with raw meat kept below ready-to-eat food?
Can staff tell a customer which menu items contain each priority allergen?

Canada's priority allergens are peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat and triticale, soy, sesame, mustard, fish, crustaceans and molluscs (shellfish), and sulphites.

Do you check for signs of pests and keep a record of pest control visits?
Is your food premises licence posted in a conspicuous place on the premises?

How the score works

Each answer earns full, half or no credit. The 3 questions about things inspectors treat as a health hazard count three times as much as minor ones, and significant items count twice. Your score is the share of points you earned: 85 or more reads as inspection-ready, 60 to 84 as a few gaps to close, and below 60 as needs attention. A health-hazard question that isn't fully in place keeps the score out of the top band.

Gaps are listed by how many points they cost you, so the first one is where to start.

Questions about the Newfoundland and Labrador check

Does a good score here count as passing an inspection?

No. The check is an unofficial self-assessment drawn from what environmental health officers commonly look at. Only an officer's inspection report is an official result.

Does the owner count as the trained person?

Yes. The regulation counts the owner as an employee, so an owner with current food safety training covers the hours they're on site. Someone else needs to be trained for the hours they aren't.

What does the emailed report include?

Every gap the check found, a plan for fixing each one, and links to printable checklists, which you can also open in a free TenorOps account.