Am I ready for my next EHO visit?
Sixteen questions, drawn from what officers actually look at and what we find when we walk kitchens before an inspection. Answer honestly and you get a readiness score, the three places you are losing marks, and a fix for each. No email needed to see your result.
Written by the consultants behind Hubl, who prepare kitchens for inspection every week
Sixteen questions. Three areas.
Food hygiene, structure and cleaning, and confidence in management — the three things an officer scores. Most lost marks are in the third.
This is a self-check, not an audit. It tells you where to look, not what an officer will decide.
Nearly there
Where you are losing marks
Swipe →Close the gaps at source
Most of what costs marks is a check that was not done, recorded or acted on that day. Hubl puts the checks on a phone, prompts the corrective action when a reading fails, flags a missed check the same day, and keeps the documents where the checks are done. Orbit, Hubl’s AI assistant, answers the question at 2 a.m.
Worth a second pair of eyes before the officer’s
At this score we would want to walk the kitchen with you. Complete Food Safety, the consultancy behind Hubl, does pre-inspection audits and writes the food safety management system with you — the same people who wrote these questions.
Ask about a pre-inspection auditFree templates for the fixes
Want your result by email, with the checklist?
We will send your score, the three gaps and the EHO inspection checklist to your inbox.
Ready to close the gaps? Hubl runs the checks, prompts the fix and keeps the record — with Orbit on hand for the questions.
Start a free 14-day trialHow the score works
Officers score three things, and we weighted the questions the way they do.
1 Food hygiene
Temperatures, cooling, cooking and separation — the things that make people ill. Five questions.
2 Structure and cleaning
Cleaning schedules, pests, hand washing and the condition of the kitchen. Four questions.
3 Confidence in management
The written system, the records, training, allergens and whether the team can produce any of it. Seven questions, because this is where most kitchens lose their marks.
How a food hygiene rating is worked out
The officer gives points in three areas — the same three this self-check uses — and the fewer points, the better.
The total sets the rating, but your worst area caps it — which is why one bad area can undo a good kitchen. A kitchen scoring 5, 5 and 15 has 25 points, which looks like a 3. The 15 in one area makes it a 2.
| Rating | Total points | No single area over |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Very good | 0 to 15 | 5 |
| 4 Good | 20 | 10 |
| 3 Generally satisfactory | 25 to 30 | 10 |
| 2 Improvement necessary | 35 to 40 | 15 |
| 1 Major improvement necessary | 45 to 50 | 20 |
| 0 Urgent improvement necessary | over 50 | — |
This self-check follows the same three areas but does not produce the officer’s points — only a visit does that. In England you can ask your council for a re-visit once you have fixed what was found (many charge for it). In Wales and Northern Ireland the rating sticker must be displayed by law. Scotland runs a separate Pass / Improvement Required scheme rather than a 0 to 5 rating.
Self-check questions, answered
Is this the same as an EHO inspection?
No. An officer inspects the kitchen, watches the team, reads the records and asks questions, then scores against the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme. This is sixteen questions you answer about yourself. It is a good guide to where you would lose marks, and no guide at all to what an officer will decide on the day.
Why does the paperwork count for so much?
Because the third of the three scores, confidence in management, is decided almost entirely on records, training and the written system, and it is the score most kitchens lose. A clean kitchen with a diary that stopped in June is a 3, not a 5.
What should I do with a low score?
Fix the three gaps it shows you first — they are the ones costing you most. If the gaps are in the written system or the records rather than the kitchen, that is when a pre-inspection audit pays for itself: someone walks the site the way an officer would, before the officer does.
How does Hubl help with any of this?
Most of the questions are about whether a check was done, recorded and acted on, every day, by whoever was on. Hubl puts the checks on a phone, prompts the corrective action when a reading fails, flags a missed check the same day, keeps the documents where the checks are done, and lets Orbit, Hubl’s AI assistant, answer the question the team would otherwise ask you. Try it free for 14 days.