Nobody fails an inspection because their diary was made of paper. They fail because the diary was not filled in, or because it was filled in all at once the night before. The question is not which format is more correct. It is which one you will actually keep up.
Side by side
| Paper pack | This app | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free to download and print from the FSA, plus your printing and a folder | Free, including exports |
| Filling in the diary | Wherever the folder is | Wherever you are standing, on the phone in your pocket |
| Who signed what | Handwriting, if it is legible | Every entry carries the name of whoever made it |
| Spotting a missed day | You leaf back through it | The calendar shows complete and incomplete days |
| Out-of-range temperatures | A number in a column | Flagged as you enter it, amber above 8°C |
| The four-weekly review | Written from memory and back-reading | Assembled from the diary, then you read and sign it |
| Allergen chart | Rewritten by hand whenever the menu changes | Edited per dish, unanswered cells flagged, reprinted in a tap |
| Producing it for an EHO | Hand over the folder | Generate the pack as a PDF for any date range, print or email |
| If it is lost or damaged | Gone | Stored and backed up, restore by signing in |
| Works with no power or signal | Always | Needs a charged phone |
| Multiple sites | A folder each | One account, each pack separate |
Where the app genuinely helps
Most of the benefit is not in any single feature. It is that the diary stops being a thing you go to and starts being a thing you already have.
- The record gets made at the moment of the check. Readings taken in the walk-in get written down in the walk-in, not remembered until later.
- Gaps are visible while you can still do something about them. A missed day shows up on the calendar the next morning rather than at your next inspection.
- Everyone can contribute. Invite the team and the checks get shared out, while each entry still carries a name.
- The paperwork assembles itself. The four-weekly review and the full EHO pack are built from entries you already made.
- It cannot be spilled on, lost or left at the other site.
Where paper is still better
We would be doing you a disservice by pretending otherwise.
- It always works. No battery, no signal, no update, no login. In a kitchen that is not nothing.
- Anyone can use it immediately. No account, no phone, no explaining the app to a new starter mid-shift.
- It is one shared object. A folder on the wall is visible to everyone in the kitchen in a way that an app on one person’s phone is not.
- Phones and food prep are awkward together. Wet hands, gloves and hot surfaces are real. Many kitchens keep a phone or tablet on a shelf away from the prep area rather than carrying it.
If your paper pack is complete, current and genuinely being filled in each day, the case for switching is much weaker. Keep doing what works.
If you do switch
You do not have to move everything at once, and you should not throw away the old pack.
- Keep your old diary. Your records have to go back as far as your authority expects. Box the paper up rather than binning it, and start the app from a clean date.
- Set up the fixed parts first. Add your fridges and freezers, your suppliers and your staff. That is the bit that takes an evening and never needs doing again.
- Run the daily diary for a week. Just the diary. Get the habit before you worry about the safe method sheets.
- Work through the safe methods at your own pace. All 31 sheets are guided, and the completion record shows what is done, what is not relevant to you and what is still outstanding.
- Export a pack and look at it. Generate the EHO pack for the period so far. It is the quickest way to see whether the record you are keeping would satisfy you if you were the one inspecting it.
If you want to be certain before your next visit, show the exported pack to your environmental health officer and ask. They assess your food safety management system either way, and most are glad to see a business taking it seriously enough to ask.
Keep reading
Try it alongside your paper pack
Nothing to cancel if you decide paper suits you better. Free on iOS and Android.
