How to Run an Internal Food Safety Audit (International Standard)

An inspector walks into your kitchen. Would you pass? An internal audit answers that question before anyone else asks it — and it turns "we should fix that one day" into a short list with an owner and a date.

AKROUN FOOD AI gives you a full internal audit built on international food-safety standards — the Codex Alimentarius principles of food hygiene and HACCP — so it works in any country: 71 checkpoints in 14 areas, temperature readings, photos, a score and a grade from A+ Gold to E, and a corrective action plan you close one item at a time.

Internal audits are part of the Chef Pro plan. You find them under Food Safety → Audits.

What the checklist covers

Licences and documents, premises, hand-washing, receiving and suppliers, storage, preparation and cross-contamination, cooking and temperature control, allergens and labelling, personal hygiene, cleaning, pest control, waste and water, training and management — plus four catering checkpoints for businesses that serve off-site.

Every temperature in the checklist comes from your own limits in Food Safety → Settings, so the same audit works in any country.

Step by step

1. Start the audit

Open Food Safety, choose the Audits tab and press Start a new audit. The report number, date and your establishment details are filled in for you.

Press Audit settings once to save your activity, trade licence number, address and person in charge — every new audit starts with them. That is also where you can change the grade cut-offs or switch on the catering checkpoints.

2. Walk the kitchen with the checklist

Take your phone or tablet with you. For every checkpoint press Compliant, Not compliant or N/A. When something is not compliant, write what you found, the corrective action and who will do it — and press Add a photo to keep the evidence.

The score and grade at the top update as you go. Each checkpoint has a risk level — Critical, Major or Minor — so you always see what matters most.

3. Take temperature readings

Probe your chillers, freezers, hot holding and a cooked dish, type each reading and press Add reading. The app checks every reading against your limits and marks it Pass or Fail.

4. Complete the audit

Add the good practice you saw and a short summary, then press Complete the audit. Every critical checkpoint must be answered first. If a few other checkpoints are still open, you can choose Complete anyway and they are left out of the score.

Once completed, the score, the grade and the limits used are frozen — the grade of audit day never changes. Fix-by dates are set from that day: critical 3 days, major 7 days, minor 30 days.

5. Share the report

The report shows the grade, the score by area, every finding with its photo, the readings, the action plan, the full checklist and a sign-off block for the auditor, the person in charge and the manager. Press Print / save as PDF to print it or send it as a PDF.

6. Close the corrective actions

Under Corrective actions, each finding moves from Open to Rectified to Verified. The person who fixed it presses Mark as rectified with a note or a photo of the fix; the auditor or manager checks it and presses Verify and close. If the fix did not hold, Reopen sends it back.

7. Run a follow-up audit

Press Start a follow-up audit. Everything that passed last time is already ticked, and every finding is checked again, so the follow-up takes minutes and gives you a fresh grade.

How the grade is worked out

A compliant checkpoint earns its points, a non-compliant one earns 0, and N/A is left out. Score = points earned ÷ points available.

Any critical finding caps the grade at C, whatever the score. You can change the cut-offs in Audit settings.

Tips from the pass

• Audit at least once a month, and at a different time of day each time — the late shift tells you more than the morning.
• Let a different person audit now and then. Fresh eyes find what the team no longer sees.
• Run one a week before an expected official inspection, and close the critical and major actions first.
• Use the photos: a picture of the fix is the fastest way to verify it.

This is an internal audit. It helps you prepare for an official inspection and does not replace one. Check your limits with your local food authority.