Sanepid: what inspectors ask your staff
The inspector does not only question the owner. See 12 questions kitchen staff hear, good answers and how to prepare the team for an inspection.
During a Sanepid (the State Sanitary Inspection) inspection, the inspector talks not only to the owner. They often ask the person who happens to be standing by the fridge, receiving a delivery or serving dishes: what the temperature should be, when they wash their hands, which allergens are in the dish. An employee's answer shows whether the HACCP book works in practice or just sits on a shelf.
As a rule, food safety inspections are unannounced, so the team must know the answers every day, not "for the date". The range of questions depends on the type of inspection and on the inspector. Below are the ones asked most often.
What the inspector checks at employee level
- Health: whether the employee has a current medical certificate for sanitary-epidemiological purposes (a copy is to be on the premises) and whether they know which symptoms mean they do not work.
- Personal hygiene: clean hands and clothing, head covering, no jewellery, a plaster and a glove on a cut.
- Knowledge: temperatures, cleaning and disinfection, allergens, what to do when a limit is exceeded.
- Records: whether the registers the employee is responsible for are kept up to date and signed.
- Training: whether there is an attendance list and a training confirmation. The Act on Food and Nutrition Safety (25 August 2006), in Art. 59(3) to (5), requires documentation of training in the personnel file and a copy of it at the workplace.
12 questions and good answers
The values in the table are typical limits from the HACCP books of small venues. In your venue, the ones in your own book apply, so before talking to the team compare the table with your HACCP plan.
| Inspector's question | A good answer | Where the employee checks it |
|---|---|---|
| What should the temperature be in this fridge? | from 0 to +4 °C, unless the product label says otherwise | temperature register, the appliance's thermometer |
| And in the freezer? | -18 °C and below | temperature register |
| What should it be inside a chicken cutlet after frying? | at least +75 °C, I measure with a probe thermometer | HACCP plan, station instruction |
| At what temperature do you hold soup in the bain-marie? | above +63 °C | serving register, if the venue keeps one |
| How do you cool a cooked sauce? | in a shallow container, from +60 to +10 °C within 2 hours, then into the fridge with a label | cooling instruction |
| When do you wash your hands? | before work and after a break, after the toilet, after raw meat, after rubbish, after the phone, before putting on gloves | hand washing instruction at the sink |
| What do you do if you have diarrhoea? | I report to the manager before the shift and do not work with food | staff health procedure |
| The fridge shows +9 °C. What do you do? | I move the goods to a working fridge, report to the manager, enter the true reading and what I did | temperature register, corrective action register |
| Are there nuts in this dish? | I check in the allergen list or ask the cook, I do not guess | allergen list |
| How many allergens must be given to guests? | 14 | allergen list, poster |
| You made a mistake in the register. What do you do? | I cross it out with one line, write the correct value next to it, initial it | every register |
| What do you check at a delivery? | temperature, dates, packaging, appearance, document; I do not accept a bad delivery and I report it | delivery receipt register |
Two answers are always good: "I don't know, I'll ask the manager" and "I'll check in the list". Only an invented answer is bad. You will find the details of temperatures in the post on the fridge temperature register, and a list of allergens with examples in the article 14 allergens: list and examples of dishes.
How an employee should behave during an inspection
- Calmly and politely. They call the manager or the owner at once.
- They answer briefly and truthfully. They do not guess.
- They hide nothing. They do not shift goods around or carry products to the back room. The inspector sees this and may record it in the protocol.
- The protocol and statements are signed by the owner or a person authorised by them. Agree this in the team in advance; it is an internal recommendation, not a regulation.
- They keep working by the rules. An inspection is not a reason to skip hand washing or a temperature measurement.
An employee should also know that a fine (mandate fine) is imposed on the natural person who committed the petty offence, so an employee can receive one too, but only for offences from a narrow catalogue. In mandate proceedings the fine is up to PLN 500, and up to PLN 1,000 where one act meets the elements of several petty offences (Art. 96 § 1 of the Code of Procedure in Petty Offences Cases in connection with Art. 9 § 1 of the Petty Offences Code). You have the full table of sanctions for the venue in the post Sanepid requirements for foodservice.
How to prepare the team for an inspection
- Check the documents. Copies of the certificates and training documentation of every employee on the premises, originals in the personnel files.
- Train those who have no training. New, seasonal, people from another position. An entry on the attendance list the same day.
- Go through the table from this post with the whole shift. Ask the questions aloud, at the fridge and at the sink, not at a table.
- Show where the registers, the allergen list and the instructions are kept. The employee should find them at once, without searching.
- Put up the 10 most important rules in the kitchen. Temperatures, hand washing, allergens, what to do when a limit is exceeded.
A mixed team? The inspector will ask questions in Polish, but the employee must understand the rules in their own language. Read how to organise this in the post on training employees from Ukraine.
Frequently asked questions
Can an inspector talk to an employee without the owner?
In practice, inspectors during an inspection also talk to the people present on the premises. An employee should call the manager or the owner at once, but does not have to stay silent: they answer truthfully what they know.
Does an employee have to carry the medical certificate on them?
Not on them, but a copy is to be at the workplace (Art. 59(5) of the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety). You keep the original in the personnel file.
What if an employee answers a question wrongly?
The inspector may take it as a sign that the training is insufficient and write a remark in the protocol. The best reaction after an inspection is ad hoc training with an entry on the attendance list.
Is an inspection always unannounced?
As a rule, food safety inspections are unannounced. Assume that you are always ready for a food inspection.
Legal status as of: 12 November 2026
Legal basis: Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (Annex II, Chapter XII); Act on Food and Nutrition Safety of 25 August 2006 (consolidated text Journal of Laws (Dz.U.) 2026, item 1399), Art. 59; Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls, Art. 9(4); Code of Procedure in Petty Offences Cases (consolidated text Dz.U. 2026, item 1336), Art. 96 § 1.
Verification: The wording of Art. 59(3)-(5) of the act was checked on 12 November 2026 in the consolidated text. The wording of Chapter XII of Annex II to Regulation 852/2004 was checked on 12 November 2026 in the Polish consolidated version (CELEX 02004R0852-20210324; we did not check whether a newer version exists after 24 March 2021). The wording of Art. 9(4) of Regulation 2017/625 (official controls without prior notice, with exceptions) was checked on 12 November 2026 in the Polish version on publications.europa.eu. The wording of Art. 96 § 1 of the Code of Procedure in Petty Offences Cases (a fine in mandate proceedings of up to PLN 500, in the case under Art. 9 § 1 of the Petty Offences Code up to PLN 1,000) and Art. 9 § 1 of the Petty Offences Code (one act meeting the elements of several petty offences; Dz.U. 2026, item 1372) were checked in the consolidated texts. Not checked today: the figure of 14 allergens (Regulation 1169/2011), the inspector's powers and the procedure for signing the protocol (Act on the State Sanitary Inspection), the catalogue of offences under the Act on Food and Nutrition Safety for which a fine can be received, or the PARP (Polish Agency for Enterprise Development) material "Sanepid 2026" (a supporting source). The temperature values and limits in the table are typical limits from the HACCP books of small venues, not a statutory requirement; they were not verified in a legal source.
Last review: 12 November 2026
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