Free Health Inspection Readiness Check for Canadian Restaurants

A free self-check for restaurants in all 13 provinces and territories. Get a readiness score, your biggest inspection gaps and a fix-it plan by email.

One check, thirteen rulebooks

Food premises inspections in Canada are run by the provinces and territories, not Ottawa. That's why a "Canadian restaurant inspection checklist" is never quite right. The basics of safe food are the same everywhere. But the rules around them aren't: who has to hold a food safety certificate, when a certified person has to be on site, what you have to post by the door, and which written plans an inspector can ask to see.

So we built the inspection readiness check as thirteen versions, one per province and territory. Each one asks the same core questions plus two or three about its own rules. It takes about three minutes and gives you a score out of 100 with your biggest gaps listed in order.

The questions every version asks

Nine questions are the same across the country, because inspectors everywhere start in the same places:

Temperature records. Do you check and write down fridge, freezer and hot-holding temperatures every day?
Cooling. When you cool big batches of cooked food, do you check that they cool fast enough?
Handwashing sinks. Are they stocked, and used only for handwashing?
Illness. Do staff know to report symptoms before a shift, and do sick staff stay off food?
Sanitizer and dishwasher. Do you test sanitizer strength and dishwasher temperatures or chemical levels?
Cleaning schedule. Is there a written one that staff sign off?
Storage. Is food covered, labelled and dated, with raw meat below ready-to-eat food?
Allergens. Can staff tell a customer which items contain each priority allergen?
Pests. Do you look for signs of pests and keep pest control records?

None of these are trick questions. Most kitchens do most of them. The gap is usually between doing something and being able to show it: the walk-in is checked but nobody writes it down, the sanitizer is made up but never tested. An inspector can only credit what they can see.

What changes by province and territory

The local questions are where the versions differ. Most ask about the local food handler training rule, worded the way the local law words it, and those rules are not all the same. Some require a certified person only while the operator is away, some whenever food is being prepared, and some at all times the premises is open. In Alberta and Winnipeg it depends on how many food handlers are working. Quebec also lets a kitchen meet its rule by certifying a share of the staff who prepare food or wash equipment. Yukon has no certification rule, so its check asks about training as good practice. Who counts as the certified person varies too: the operator, the manager, or any employee with a recognized course.

Several versions also ask about something their regulation requires you to keep or display. That might be the operating permit or licence where customers can see it, the latest inspection report by the entrance, or written food safety and sanitation plans. If your group runs kitchens in more than one province, take each location's check separately. Its local questions are the part a general checklist gets wrong.

Pick yours:

Western Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba
Central Canada: Ontario, Quebec
Atlantic Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador
The North: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut

How ready is your kitchen? Score it against your province or territory's rules in about three minutes. Take the free check →

How the score is worked out

Each answer earns full, half or no credit, and a question that doesn't apply to you, such as a Winnipeg by-law outside Winnipeg, is left out. "Yes" earns full credit. The middle answer is usually some version of "we do it, but not consistently" and earns half. "No" earns nothing.

Not every question carries the same weight. Things an inspector treats as a health hazard, like temperature records, handwashing and sanitizing, count three times as much as minor ones such as a permit on display. Significant items like cooling, storage, allergens, pest records and, in most places, certified coverage count twice. A health-hazard item that isn't fully in place keeps you out of the top band, however high the score. Your score is the share of the available points you earned.

The gaps are then sorted by how many points each one cost you. That ordering is the most useful part. A score of 70 tells you there's work to do. The list tells you to start with the temperature log, not the cleaning schedule.

The check is a self-assessment, not an inspection. It can't see your kitchen, and a high score doesn't mean you'll pass. It's a quick way to find the things you'd rather hear about from yourself than from an inspector.

What happens after you see your score

Your score and your top three gaps appear on the page as soon as you finish. You don't have to give us anything to see them.

If you want the rest, enter your email and we'll send the full report. It covers every gap, what you answered, why it matters, a short fix for each, and a link to the guide that covers it. The report ends with the checklists that would close your gaps. You can print them or open them in a free TenorOps account, where they're set up and scheduled for you.

For background on the rules themselves, these are good places to start:

When you're ready, choose your province or territory and start the check.