The daily diary catches things on the day. The four-weekly review catches patterns: the same fridge drifting, the same check being skipped on Sundays, a member of staff who started three weeks ago and has still not been trained on anything.
It is also the page an inspector uses to work out whether the pack is being run or merely filled in. Twelve completed reviews across a year say something no amount of daily ticks can.
Assembled, not written from scratch
In the app the review is built from the four weeks you have already recorded. You are reading and confirming rather than reconstructing. Every question has an answer, a space for what you did about it, and a signature.
That matters most for the questions about things that happen rarely. Nobody remembers in week four whether the probes were calibrated in week one. The diary does.
The twelve questions
These are the questions on the FSA form, with what each is really asking:
- Have you reviewed your safe methods? Do the sheets still describe how the kitchen actually works, or has practice drifted away from the paperwork?
- Is your allergen information up to date? New dishes, changed recipes, a supplier who altered an ingredient.
- Have you changed equipment or a process? If so, the safe method and probably a prove-it check need to follow.
- Have new suppliers been recorded? Traceability starts with knowing who you bought it from.
- Does the cleaning schedule need updating? New equipment, new areas, a job that turned out to need doing more often.
- Have new staff been trained? The question that catches the person who started mid-period.
- Do existing staff need a refresher? Retraining is its own section on the training record for a reason.
- Are extra opening or closing checks needed? Usually prompted by something that went wrong.
- Have complaints been investigated? Including the ones that came to nothing.
- Have probes been calibrated and recorded? Every temperature in the period rests on this one.
- Have extra checks been recorded weekly?
- Have prove-it checks been completed and recorded?
The "three or more problems" question
The form asks whether the same problem came up three or more times in the four weeks. It is the most useful question on the page, because three occurrences is the point at which something stops being bad luck and starts being a method that does not work.
If the answer is yes, the pack wants to know what you changed, not that you tried harder. A fridge that has been flagged three times needs an engineer or replacing. A closing check missed three times needs a different person doing it, or a different time.
Signing it, and where it ends up
The review is signed by a named person. In the app that is whoever is signed in, recorded by name rather than as an anonymous tick, which is the thing an inspector is really checking: not just that a review happened, but that someone took responsibility for it.
When you export the diary for a period of four weeks or more, the review prints with it on the official FSA form, in the same place it sits in the paper pack.
Common questions
How often is the SFBB review?
Every four weeks. That is thirteen reviews in a year rather than twelve, which is why it is called four-weekly rather than monthly.
What does the four-weekly review ask?
Twelve questions covering safe methods, allergen information, equipment and process changes, suppliers, cleaning, staff training and refreshers, extra checks, complaints, probe calibration and prove-it checks, plus whether any problem recurred three or more times.
Do I have to do it if nothing happened?
Yes. A review recording that nothing changed is still a review, and a run of them is evidence the pack is being kept rather than abandoned.
Can someone else sign it?
Anyone with access can complete it, and it records who did. The point is that a named person stands behind it.
Does it print on the official form?
Yes. Export a diary period of four weeks or more and the review comes with it on the FSA template.
Keep reading
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