The unannounced inspection in Victoria, Gozo

Immediate action - food safety risk now.

1. Milk at 9°C. The fridge is not holding high-risk food at 5°C or below. The milk may have been above 5°C for an unknown time and should be discarded unless there is reliable evidence that it has just been placed there. Other open high-risk foods in the same fridge should be assessed and probably discarded. Move remaining stock to a working fridge and stop using the faulty unit for high-risk food until it is repaired and verified.
2. Cooked pasta left at room temperature overnight. This is a high-risk food that has spent many hours in the danger zone. It must be discarded. Reheating in sauce will not reliably destroy toxins that may already have formed, and the pasta may not reach 75°C throughout.
3. Dead probe thermometer. The kitchen cannot verify cooking, cooling or holding temperatures. Replace the battery or use a working probe immediately. Until then, do not rely on the fridge display, which already reads 4°C while the milk is at 9°C.

Urgent but not immediate discard.

1. Unlabelled frozen prawns. Segregate them, keep them frozen and do not use them until traceability is established. If the supplier cannot be identified, discard them. Traceability is a legal requirement.

2. No HACCP plan, cleaning schedule or records. This is a systemic failure and must be corrected, but it does not require food to be thrown away on the spot. The EHO will expect a written plan and records within a stated period.

Priority order. The milk and pasta are the foods most likely to cause illness today; the thermometer and fridge are the controls that failed; the records are the evidence that controls are not in place.

Start with prerequisites. The restaurant needs basic hygiene controls before a formal HACCP plan: supplier approval and traceability, cleaning schedule, pest control, personal hygiene, training, maintenance of fridges and probes, and a written fitness-to-work policy. These are the foundation.

Then follow the HACCP logic in a simple, documented way.

1. Hazard analysis. List the menu processes and identify the significant hazards: bacteria in raw meat and dairy, Bacillus cereus in cooked rice and pasta, Clostridium perfringens in stews, Listeria in chilled RTE food, and cross-contamination from raw to RTE. Focus on cooking, cooling, reheating, hot holding, cold holding and raw/RTE separation.
2. Critical control points. For this kitchen, the CCPs are likely to be cooking (core temperature), cooling (time/temperature), reheating (core temperature), hot holding (≥63°C) and cold holding (≤5°C).
3. Critical limits. For example, cook poultry to 75°C at the core; cool from 63°C to 21°C within 2 hours and 21°C to 5°C within 4 hours; reheat to 75°C; hold hot food at 63°C or above; keep cold food at 5°C or below.
4. Monitoring. Use a calibrated probe and record temperatures at the specified frequency, with the time, reading and initials. Check fridge temperatures at opening and closing, and hot-held food every 2 hours.
5. Corrective action. State what to do when a limit is missed: reheat, recool, move food, or discard. Record the action and the reason.
6. Verification. Check that the system works: review records weekly, calibrate probes, check cleaning, and review supplier performance. The owner or manager should sign the review.
7. Records. Keep simple, dated sheets for temperature, cleaning, supplier traceability, training and corrective actions.

The plan can be a few pages with flow diagrams and monitoring sheets. It must reflect what actually happens in the kitchen, not a generic template that nobody uses.

Legal responsibilities. As the food business operator, the owner is responsible for ensuring that food is safe and that the business complies with food hygiene law. Under EU Regulation 852/2004, food business operators must put in place, implement and maintain permanent procedures based on HACCP principles. That includes identifying hazards, identifying critical control points, establishing critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, verification and record keeping. The owner also has responsibilities for traceability, hygiene training, premises and equipment maintenance, and for ensuring that staff are supervised and instructed in food safety.

The owner cannot delegate this responsibility to staff or rely on their long experience. 'We know what to do' is not a documented system, and an unlabelled bag of prawns and missing records are breaches of traceability and HACCP obligations. The EHO can require improvements, serve notices, and in serious cases restrict or close the business or prosecute.

How to respond.

• Cooperate fully and calmly. Do not argue or hide food. Take the EHO's findings seriously.
• Deal with the immediate risks during the inspection: discard the milk and pasta, segregate the prawns, replace the probe battery, and move high-risk food to a working fridge.
• Ask the EHO to confirm the specific legal requirements and the timescale for written procedures and records.
• Write an action plan with dates and named responsibilities, and send it to the EHO.
• Introduce simple monitoring sheets, a cleaning schedule, a supplier/traceability file and a probe calibration log.
• Train staff and keep training records. Make one person responsible for checking records weekly.
• Review the plan after a month to confirm it is being used, and ask the EHO for feedback.

The owner should see the paperwork as a tool for controlling real risks, not as bureaucracy. A short, honest plan that is actually followed is far stronger than a thick folder that is not.