A restaurant risk assessment helps identify hazards before they result in an injury or serious incident.
Restaurants involve employees, customers, vendors, equipment, food, beverages, chemicals, vehicles, and constantly changing conditions.
Therefore, identifying potential hazards is an important part of restaurant safety.
What Is a Restaurant Risk Assessment?
A restaurant risk assessment is a systematic process used to identify and evaluate potential hazards.
The basic process involves three steps:
- Identify the hazard.
- Evaluate the potential risk.
- Determine what measures can reduce or control that risk.
In simple terms, ask:
What could go wrong, how serious could it be, and what can reasonably be done about it?
Identifying Restaurant Hazards
Potential hazards can involve activities, behaviors, equipment, systems, procedures, or physical conditions.
For example, a restaurant risk assessment may examine:
- Slippery floors
- Hot beverages
- Kitchen equipment
- Food handling
- Alcohol service
- Employee training
- Security procedures
- Parking lots and walkways
- Cleaning chemicals
- Management practices
Once a hazard is identified, the potential for harm can be evaluated.
Evaluating Restaurant Risk
Risk assessment considers both the likelihood of an incident and the potential severity of the outcome.
A simple question can begin the process:
Is it safe?
Then ask:
If this condition remains unchanged, what could happen?
Could someone fall?
Could someone be burned?
Could someone become ill?
Could an employee or customer be injured?
The answers help determine whether additional safety measures should be considered.
It’s no accident. It’s risk assessment.
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