Aged care kitchen food safety audit checklist
Seven areas to check, from receiving to the dining room, and how to grade what you find.
Check seven areas: the food safety program itself, receiving and storage, cooking, cooling and reheating, service and distribution, special diets, cleaning and hygiene, and people and suppliers. Look at the floor and the records together. Grade each finding critical, major or minor, give it an owner and a date, and close it with evidence before the auditor arrives.
The checklist
1. Program and paperwork
- Food safety program current and matches the kitchen
- Reviewed after menu or equipment changes
- Last audit findings closed with evidence
- Records complete for the last 3 months
2. Receiving and storage
- Chilled deliveries at 5°C or colder, recorded
- Fridges and coolrooms at 5°C or colder
- Food covered, labelled, dated, rotated
- Raw and ready-to-eat kept apart
3. Cooking, cooling, reheating
- Core temperatures checked and recorded
- Cooling: 60°C to 21°C in 2 hours, then 5°C in 4
- Reheated food to 60°C or hotter quickly
- Probes calibrated, with a record
4. Service and distribution
- Hot food at 60°C or hotter at point of service
- Cold food at 5°C or colder at point of service
- Trolley and plating times recorded
- Leftovers handled per the program
5. Special diets
- Current diet list from clinical staff
- Meals checked against the list before service
- Texture-modified meals tested and recorded
- Allergen meals prepared and labelled separately
6. Cleaning and hygiene
- Cleaning schedule followed and signed
- Food contact surfaces sanitised
- Hand basins stocked and accessible
- Pest control reports current
7. People and suppliers
- Food safety supervisor certified, within 5 years
- Staff training records current, including agency staff
- Approved supplier list and certificates current
- Sick staff exclusion followed
Our internal checklist, not an official audit tool. Your food safety program and auditor set the requirements.
How to run it
- Walk the floor first, at a meal service. Watch food go from the kitchen to residents. That’s where most gaps are.
- Then pick three random days of records and check them line by line against what you saw.
- Ask staff, not just managers. “What do you do if the bain-marie reads 55°C?” tells you whether the program works.
- Include a weekend shift if you can. Records often thin out on weekends and with agency staff.
Grade and close what you find
| Grade | Means | Close within |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Food safety at immediate risk, such as hot food served below 60°C or a wrong-texture meal served | Now, before the next service |
| Major | A control isn’t working, such as cooling records missing for a week | Days |
| Minor | A gap in records or upkeep that doesn’t put food at risk today | Weeks |
Give every finding an owner and a due date, and close it with evidence: a photo, a new record, a training sign-off. An auditor wants to see that your own checks find and fix problems.
Turn the checklist into daily records
In EthicalHub, the checks on this list happen as part of the day: temperatures at receiving, storage and point of service, diet and texture checks, cleaning sign-offs and training records. Findings become corrective actions with owners and due dates, and the auditor gets a complete record in about a minute.
See it with your home’s checks
A free 20-minute walkthrough. Plans from $69 a month per site.
Aged care kitchen audits: common questions
How often should an aged care kitchen run an internal audit?
What does an external food safety auditor check in aged care?
How should I grade what I find?
Is this checklist an official audit tool?
Find it first, fix it first.
Daily checks, findings and fixes, all on record.