How to Pass an EHO Inspection at Your Pub

Last updated: 2 May 2026

Most pub landlords dread the EHO visit like it’s a criminal investigation. It’s not. I’ve been there—when I first took on Teal Farm Pub three years ago, my kitchen was chaos, my records were scattered across three notebooks, and I was genuinely worried we’d fail. We didn’t. We scored 5-star. The difference wasn’t hiring a consultant or ripping out the kitchen. It was understanding what the Environmental Health Officer actually cares about, and what they don’t.

An EHO inspection is designed to check one thing: are you handling food safely and keeping records that prove it? Everything else—the paint on the walls, the exact layout of your dry store—is secondary. This article will show you exactly what they’re looking for, the common mistakes that sink pubs, and how to prepare so the inspection becomes routine rather than traumatic.

What an EHO Inspection Actually Covers

An EHO inspection has three core components: food handling practices, premises cleanliness, and documentation that proves you’re doing both consistently. The officer will walk through your kitchen (if you have one), check your cold storage, look at your suppliers, and review whatever records you have. They’re not looking for perfection. They’re looking for evidence that you have a system in place.

When the EHO arrives, they’ll want to see:

• Your food handling procedures and staff training records
• Temperature logs for fridges, freezers, and hot holding equipment
• Cleaning schedules and evidence of completion (signed off, dated)
• Supplier information and food traceability
• Pest control arrangements and records
• Your kitchen layout and equipment, with attention to cross-contamination risks

The inspection itself usually takes 1–2 hours for a small pub with a basic kitchen. The officer will ask questions, observe conditions, and review documents. There’s no performance element. You either have the records or you don’t. Your kitchen is either clean or it isn’t.

Most pubs think an EHO inspection is about whether the walls are painted and the floor is spotless. It isn’t. I’ve seen 5-star ratings in kitchens that are small, dated, and not fancy—because the owner had rigorous cleaning records, temperature logs, and clear procedures. I’ve also seen fails in newer kitchens where nobody could produce a single piece of written evidence of what they were doing.

The Three Things That Get Pubs Failed

Pubs fail EHO inspections for three reasons: missing temperature records, no documented cleaning schedule, and evidence of cross-contamination or pest activity. Everything else is secondary.

Here’s what I’ve learned from running a food-serving pub and from talking to other licensees:

1. No Temperature Logs

This is the killer. An EHO will ask to see your fridge temperature records for the last 7–14 days. If you don’t have them, or if they show temperatures above 5°C, you’re at serious risk of a fail. It doesn’t matter how new your fridge is or how well it looks—if you can’t prove the temperature has been checked, the officer has to assume food safety has been compromised.

The fix is simple: buy a cheap £15 thermometer, check your fridge and freezer once a day (morning is easiest), write it down, and keep the sheet on the wall. That’s it. I check ours at 7 a.m., write the time and temperature on a printed sheet, and file it monthly. Takes 90 seconds. It’s also the number-one reason pubs pass with high scores.

2. Cleaning Records That Don’t Exist

An EHO will ask, “When was the floor last cleaned?” and expect you to say, “Let me check the log.” If you say, “Uh, this morning, I think,” you’ve failed that part of the inspection. Without written evidence, the officer must assume cleaning is inconsistent or non-existent.

You need a cleaning rota posted in the kitchen that lists:

• Daily tasks (floors, counters, handwashing stations)
• Weekly tasks (deep clean behind equipment, wash mop heads)
• Staff member initials and date/time completed

Print a template, laminate it, use dry-erase markers, and take a photo at the end of each week. That’s your proof.

3. Cross-Contamination or Pest Evidence

An EHO will look for obvious signs: raw meat stored above ready-to-eat food, open food in the dry store, droppings, evidence of rodents, or gaps in the walls where pests could enter. These are instant failures because they pose a direct food safety risk.

The fix: separate raw and cooked foods completely, keep all food in sealed containers, arrange a professional pest control service (most cost £80–150 per visit), and keep their reports on file. If the EHO sees a pest control report from the last month, they know you’re taking it seriously.

Food Safety Records: The Foundation

Your food safety record system doesn’t need to be sophisticated—it needs to be consistent, written down, and provable. Most pubs fail not because they’re doing anything wrong, but because they can’t show what they’re doing.

Start with these four documents:

1. Temperature Log

Create a simple table with columns: Date, Time, Fridge Temp (°C), Freezer Temp (°C), Checked By. Print 52 copies (one per week) and keep them in a ring binder. Check temperatures daily. File completed sheets monthly. That’s it.

2. Cleaning Schedule

Write down every task: who cleans, when, how often, and initial/date when done. Post it in the kitchen. This single document will account for 20% of your score.

3. Supplier Information

Keep a simple list of who supplies what. Name, contact, and food type. Your EHO will ask where your meat comes from, your vegetables, your ready-to-eat items. You need to be able to answer that and prove the supplier is legitimate. A one-page spreadsheet is enough.

4. Staff Training Record

Document that your staff have received food safety training. This doesn’t need to be formal—a record saying “James completed Level 1 food hygiene training on [date]” is enough. If you’ve got multiple staff, keep individual files with dates and sign-off.

The key to all four documents is this: consistency beats perfection. An EHO would rather see a simple, hand-written temperature log that has been filled in every single day than a fancy digital system with gaps in the data.

Temperature Control and Equipment Checks

Cold storage is where most food poisoning starts. An EHO will check your fridge and freezer temperatures, look at the equipment, and verify you’re monitoring them. Here’s what you need:

Fridge and Freezer Standards

• Fridge: 0–5°C (keep at 4°C ideally)
• Freezer: −18°C or below
• Check and log daily, ideally at the same time
• If temperature is ever above range, you must note it and take action (move stock, call engineer, discard affected food)

Equipment Condition

The EHO will look at whether your fridge has:

• A working thermometer (most do, but check)
• Clean interior and exterior
• No obvious mould, ice build-up, or leaks
• Proper gasket (door seal) with no gaps

You don’t need new equipment. You need clean, functioning equipment. If your fridge is old but spotless and temperatures are consistent, you’ll pass. If it’s new but dirty or temperatures are erratic, you’ll fail.

Hot Holding Equipment

If you serve hot food (pasties, pies, chips), check that hot holds are maintaining temperature. An EHO will use a thermometer to verify hot food is staying above 63°C. Log these temperatures as well, ideally twice a shift.

I’ve served 180 covers from a small kitchen at Teal Farm during match days, and temperature control is non-negotiable. You can’t batch cook and hold hot food safely without a system. Keep a log, check it, and you’re fine.

Pest Control and Deep Cleaning

Pest control is the one area where you must pay for professional help—DIY approaches won’t satisfy an EHO.

Arrange a contract with a licensed pest control company. Most charge £80–150 per visit, and you should have them quarterly as a minimum (monthly if you’re in an older premises or near drains). Keep their reports on file. When an EHO asks about pest control, you hand them the file. Done.

For deep cleaning, schedule it monthly as a minimum. This means:

• Behind and under equipment (fridges, cookers, prep tables)
• High shelves and corners where dust gathers
• Walls and skirting boards
• Door frames and hinges
• Mop heads washed and dried

Log it as part of your cleaning schedule. Date, time, staff member, signature. An EHO can tell the difference between “we clean when it gets dirty” and “we have a system.” The latter always scores higher.

How to Prepare in the Weeks Before Inspection

You won’t always know when an EHO is coming, but you’ll often get a sense—inspections usually happen between spring and autumn, and they often follow a complaint. If you haven’t had an inspection in two years, one is likely coming.

8 Weeks Before (Best Case Scenario)

• Check your current records. Do you have temperature logs? Cleaning schedules? If not, start them now.
• Deep clean the kitchen, behind equipment, under the sink, high shelves.
• Call a pest control company if you haven’t got a current contract.
• Review your supplier information and update it.

2 Weeks Before

• Print out your temperature logs, cleaning schedules, and supplier lists. Have them organised and easy to find.
• Do another deep clean, focusing on areas the EHO will definitely check: fridge seals, behind cooker, floor edges.
• Check your fridge and freezer for anything past its date. Discard it.
• Ensure every staff member who handles food knows where records are kept and what they’re for.

The Day Before

• Clean the kitchen top to bottom. Mop floors, wipe down all surfaces, clean the fridge inside and out.
• Organise your documents in a single folder: temperature logs, cleaning schedules, supplier details, pest control reports, training records.
• Check fridge and freezer temperatures first thing in the morning and log them. Show the EHO that you do this routinely.
• Brief staff: the EHO is professional, questions are normal, and we’ve got nothing to hide.

The most common mistake I see is pub owners panicking and doing a massive clean the night before, as if that’s the point. It isn’t. The EHO is looking at your systems. A deep clean is good, but written records covering weeks and months matter more. If you’ve got spotless records and the kitchen looks reasonably clean, you’ll pass. If you’ve got no records and the kitchen is spotless, you’ll fail.

Managing the Inspection Itself

When the EHO arrives:

• Be polite and cooperative. This isn’t an adversarial process.
• Walk them through the kitchen and explain your procedures as they look around.
• If they ask about something, answer honestly. “I’m not sure” is better than making something up.
• Have your records folder ready. Don’t make them search for documents.
• Ask questions if you don’t understand feedback. EHOs expect you to care about food safety.

At the end, they’ll give you a score and tell you if you’ve passed or failed. A pass is binary—you get a rating (usually 5-star in the UK system currently). Immediately after, ask for clarity on any action points. If they’ve identified something to fix, get it done within the timeframe they give and document it.

After the Inspection

Review the feedback. If you’ve got a perfect score, don’t relax—keep the same systems in place. If you’ve got minor feedback, fix it and continue logging everything. The best defence against future fails is consistency. One great inspection doesn’t matter if the next one sees three months of missing temperature logs.

Once you have your systems established, they take minutes per day to maintain. At Teal Farm, temperature checking takes 90 seconds, the cleaning log takes 30 seconds at end of shift, and filing takes 5 minutes weekly. That’s it. The difference between a 5-star rating and a fail is often just those 5 minutes per week.

Before you take on a pub—whether you’re tied to a pubco like Marston’s CRP or buying freehold—understand that food safety compliance isn’t optional. It’s a legal requirement, and it directly affects your ability to operate. Use a Pub Command Centre to track your systems alongside your financial performance. You need visibility on both your food safety records and your profit margins from day one. When you’re starting out, having real-time access to your labour costs, GP breakdown, and cash position prevents the panic that leads to poor hygiene records in the first place.

For more information, visit pub profit margin calculator.

For more information, visit retail partner earnings calculator.

For more information, visit best pub EPOS systems guide.