Whether in a restaurant, a supermarket, or a food storage warehouse, maintaining proper safety techniques is crucial for protecting both your product and your customers.

Of course, food safety is one of the most closely-monitored aspects of industry in this day and age, and every business that deals in food is going to be subject to frequent health inspections to make sure standards for cleanliness are being met. If you’re already taking the right precautions, these inspections are nothing to worry about, but we understand they can be pretty stressful on top of everything else you have to deal with. If you have a health inspection coming up and you want some tips to get extra-prepared, here’s some advice and information we’ve pulled together:

Keep Your Staff Prepared: Just because you’re ready for the health inspector doesn’t mean your entire team is. Pull together your warehouse staff, kitchen staff, wait staff, or whoever you work with and write up an agenda and action plan to delegate tasks and keep your staff working and prepared for the incoming inspection.

Review Previous Health Reports: Unless you’ve only opened recently, odds are you’ve already had a few health inspections, which are a great way to get ideas for what needs to be attended to. Take a look at your old reports to see what needed help and what your strong points were in the past to get an idea of what should be attended to and improved now before your next inspection (if you haven’t already).

Inspect All Installations: In both kitchen work and food storage, the temptation might be there to only check things like freezer temperature, product handling policies, and so on. Health inspectors have been placing an increased importance on exactly how products are stored, and if your shelving or storage units have any rust or damage you could be placing your food products at risk. Consider upgrading to rust proof wire shelving or NSF approved food shelving to prevent damage and the spread of germs.

Clean Less-Traveled Areas: Cleaning a food storage area isn’t too much different than cleaning a room in your house, but missing the usual hard-to-reach areas could have greater consequences here. Sweep corners, polish counter tops, wipe down the underside of the bar (if you have one), and so on. Making a list of every available surface and area might give you a better idea of what you need to start with and where you need to be cleaning.

Stay Proactive: After the cleaning is all done and your restaurant, kitchen, or warehouse is ready for prime time, call the health inspector to ask to schedule your inspection ahead of time. Making an effort to get inspected will show that you take cleanliness and product safety very seriously and will reflect well on your business.