Food safetyfor restaurants.
Lemon keeps a restaurant kitchen's food safety records on the team's phones: fridge and freezer rounds, cook, cool and reheat checks, deliveries, opening and closing checks and allergens. Every record has a name and a time.
What records does a restaurant need to keep?
Every UK restaurant needs food safety procedures based on HACCP principles, and records that show the team follows them. Most use a ready-made pack: Safer Food, Better Business in England and Wales, CookSafe in Scotland or Safe Catering in Northern Ireland.
Day to day, a restaurant's records come down to these seven.
| Record | What it shows | In Lemon |
|---|---|---|
| Fridge and freezer temperatures | Chilled and frozen food stayed cold, checked at least once a day. | Temperature logs |
| Cook, cool, reheat and hot-hold | The core temperature of the food at each step, and who probed it. | Food checks |
| Problems and what you did | What went wrong, what the team did about it, and whether food was affected. | Issue reports |
| Deliveries | Supplier, arrival temperature, use-by and condition of each delivery. | Deliveries |
| Opening, closing and cleaning | The kitchen was set up, cleaned and shut down, and who did it. | Checklists |
| Allergen information | Which of the 14 allergens each dish contains, so front of house can answer. | Allergen matrix |
| Staff training | Who has been trained in food safety, and when. | Staff training |
Fridge rounds, twice a day.
Every fridge, freezer and hot cupboard is a unit with its own range. The morning and afternoon rounds take them one at a time, in the order the team walks the kitchen.
A reading out of range is flagged as you type. Saving it opens an issue, which stays on Today until a manager resolves it.
How temperature logs work
Cook, cool and reheat, probed and named.
Tap Cook, Cool, Reheat or Hot-hold, type the dish and the reading, and save. Each button shows its target, and Lemon records the number you probed beside it.
Every check is listed on its day with the cook's name and the time, so a batch can be followed from the stove to the pass.
Food checks, step by step
Allergen answers for front of house.
Record every dish against the 14 allergens, with a may-contain list and notes. Managers keep it up to date, and everyone on the team can read it.
A server searches the dish, or picks an allergen to see which dishes contain it. Each dish shows who confirmed it and when.
How the allergen matrix worksExample day
A Saturday at a 60-cover restaurant.
Who records what, and what is on file by close. Names and readings are made up.
- 08:30
Open
Alex does the morning round and Opening Checks before prep starts.
- 10:15
The fish delivery
Supplier, 2°C on the probe, use-by checked, good condition. Saved before the driver leaves.
- 15:40
Short rib off the heat
Cook, short rib, 79°C. Half is cooled for Sunday and probed at 7°C at 17:05.
- 19:20
“Is there celery in the soup?”
A server searches Allergens and answers from what the kitchen entered.
- 21:05
The dessert fridge reads 9°C
Lemon flags it. Jo moves the stock to the walk-in and notes it. The issue stays open until the head chef resolves it.
- 23:10
Close
The evening round and Closing Checks, under Jo's name.
On file by close
- Two fridge rounds, every reading named and timed
- Cook and cool checks for the short rib
- One delivery, with its reading and supplier
- One issue: what went wrong, what was done, who resolved it
- Opening and closing checks, in full
Export any range of dates as one PDF. Nothing to type up first.
See a sample reportWhat Lemon does not do for a restaurant.
- It does not cost recipes or manage stock.Menus, ordering and margins stay in your other tools.
- It does not print labels.Food you prepack for sale needs a label made elsewhere.
- It does not write your SFBB pack or HACCP plan.The safe methods and the diary sign-off stay yours.
- It does not read probes or sensors.Someone takes the reading and types the number.
- It does not do bookings, rotas or the till.
Restaurant questions,
answered.
Something else on your mind?hi@getlemon.app
What does an inspector look at in a restaurant kitchen?
How food is handled and stored, the condition of the kitchen, and how food safety is managed, which includes your records. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland those three areas decide the hygiene rating. Lemon keeps the records part in order. It cannot change the other two.
Does a restaurant need a HACCP plan?
A restaurant needs food safety procedures based on HACCP principles, written down and followed. Most use a ready-made pack such as Safer Food, Better Business, or CookSafe in Scotland. Lemon keeps the daily records the pack asks for. It does not write the pack.
How often should restaurant fridges be checked?
Your safe method sets the rule, and at least once a day is the usual minimum. Many kitchens check before service and again later in the day. Lemon splits the day at noon into a morning and an afternoon round.
Can front of house read the allergen matrix?
Yes. Everyone on the team signs in with their own login at no extra cost and can read the matrix. Only owners and managers can change dishes. Lemon is £19 per location per month.
Do we need new probes or sensors?
No. Use the thermometers and probes you have and type the reading. Lemon needs no hardware beyond your phones.
Does Lemon work in a basement kitchen with poor signal?
Temperature readings, food checks, deliveries and issue reports are saved on the phone first and sent when the connection returns, even if the app is closed in the meantime. Checklists still need a connection, so run them where the phone has signal.
Something else on your mind?hi@getlemon.app
Keep reading.
What an EHO actually looks for in a 2026 restaurant inspectionThe three scores an inspector gives you, and a routine that makes inspection day calm.- Food safety records for UK restaurants: a practical checklistThe monitoring, action and review records that show your pack is used.
- The opening and closing checklist every UK kitchen should be runningWhat belongs on each list, and the checks most often missed.
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for 14 days.
Then £19 per location per month. Every fridge, every team member, staff training included.
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