Guide for Ireland
A food safety records app for Irish kitchens, pubs and cafés
5-star reviews on TrustpilotA food safety records app replaces the paper Safe Catering forms with temperature logs, daily checklists and incident records kept on a phone or tablet, named and timestamped. ShiftComplete does this alongside your staff roster, so the records an EHO from the HSE asks to see are in one place. It costs €1.99 per active staff member per month, free for 60 days.
On this page
Every food business in Ireland has to register with the HSE before it starts trading, and from then on an Environmental Health Officer from the HSE can call. They'll want to see how you control the hazards in your kitchen, and that usually means records: fridge and freezer temperatures, cooking and cooling checks, cleaning, deliveries, staff training.
In most small kitchens those records live in the FSAI's Safe Catering record books, a clipboard by the walk-in, and a drawer of old sheets. It works on a good week. On a bad week the Tuesday readings are filled in on Thursday in the same pen, the night shift forgets, and the book for March is nowhere.
What's at stake in Ireland
There are no hygiene rating stickers in Ireland. What there is, is enforcement. EHOs can serve Closure Orders, Improvement Orders and Prohibition Orders, and the FSAI publishes them every month. A Closure Order stays listed for three months after it's lifted. In 2025, 127 orders were served on food businesses: 102 Closure Orders, 23 Prohibition Orders and 2 Improvement Orders.
Records don't make a kitchen safe on their own. But a kitchen that can show, reading by reading, that its fridges held temperature and its checks got done is in a far better position when an EHO asks.
The FSAI temperatures to log against
| Control | FSAI guidance for caterers |
|---|---|
| Chilled food | Between 0°C and 5°C (fridges set at 3°C or 4°C usually achieve it) |
| Cooking | Core reaches 75°C instantaneously, or an equivalent such as 70°C for 2 minutes |
| Hot holding | Above 63°C, or use within 2 hours of cooking |
| Cooling | Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within 2 hours |
| Reheating | Once only, to 70°C or hotter at the core |
| Probe thermometer | Check its accuracy at least twice a year |
The danger zone is 5°C to 63°C. Our guide to fridge temperature rules goes into each one.
From Safe Catering forms to an app
The Safe Catering pack has nine recording forms. Here's where each one can live in ShiftComplete, and where it can't:
| Safe Catering form | What it records | In ShiftComplete |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Food Delivery | Ready-to-eat deliveries | A delivery check on your daily checklist, with a photo of the docket if you want one |
| 2 Refrigeration | Fridge and freezer temperatures | Temperature logs, each unit with its own range |
| 3 Cooking, Cooling, Reheating | Core temperatures | Probe checks as checklist tasks, with optional photo evidence |
| 4 Hot Hold Display | Hot-held food | Temperature logs for each hot-hold point |
| 5 Hygiene Inspection Checklist | Premises and staff practice checks | Checklists that change by weekday |
| 6 Hygiene Training | Staff training | Not a ShiftComplete feature: keep it in staff files |
| 7 Fitness to Work | Staff health before handling food | Not a ShiftComplete feature: keep it on file |
| 8 All-in-one Daily Record | Forms 1 to 4 in one | Temperature logs plus your daily checklist |
| 9 Transport and Delivery | Deliveries to customers | A checklist, if you deliver |
More on running the pack this way in our guide to a digital Safe Catering pack.
How ShiftComplete keeps the records
ShiftComplete is a roster and operations app for hospitality. It runs in the browser on any phone or tablet, so the tablet behind the bar or the phone in a chef's pocket is all you need.
Temperature logs
Set up every fridge, freezer, hot-hold and ambient point once, each with its own minimum and maximum. Staff log a reading in seconds. A reading outside the range is flagged on the dashboard, so the manager sees it that shift rather than the next time someone flicks through the book. Add a photo of the display if you want evidence. Every reading is named and timestamped, and a 7-day rolling view shows the week at a glance when the EHO is standing at the pass.
Daily checks and cleaning
Opening, closing, cleaning and due-diligence checklists that differ by weekday, so Monday's deep clean of the extraction canopy shows up on Monday. One-off priority tasks for the day ("Probe and record the new cooling process for the soup batch"). Every tick is named and timestamped, with optional or required photo evidence. A 2am close still counts as today.
Incidents and maintenance
A freezer that won't hold temperature, a pest sighting, a burn on the line: logged in seconds with a photo, severity, status and resolution notes, visible on the dashboard until it's sorted.
Risk assessments, reports and the audit log
Create, keep and print risk assessments in the app. A weekly report rolls up task completion, temperature breaches, incidents and the maintenance backlog, and the full audit log exports as CSV.
Allergens
Every dish mapped to the 14 allergens, grouped by course and searchable by front-of-house. See our allergen app page for how that fits with the written information the law requires.
A Tuesday in a 50-cover kitchen (an example)
- 7.45am: the first chef in logs the walk-in, two under-counter fridges and the freezer on the kitchen tablet. The fish fridge reads 7°C and is flagged.
- 7.50am: they move the fish, log a maintenance job with a photo, and recheck at 8.30am: 4°C.
- 12pm and 6pm: hot-hold readings on the bain marie.
- 3pm: the soup cooling check is ticked with a photo of the probe.
- 11.30pm: the closing checklist is ticked, named and timed.
- Friday: the EHO calls. The head chef opens the 7-day view.
Pricing
€1.99 per active staff member per month, every feature included, including the roster. A 12-person kitchen and floor team pays €23.88 a month. Free for 60 days, no card, no contract. Set-up takes about five minutes, and you can book a free set-up call.
From our own hospitality group
ShiftComplete was built inside our own hospitality group, Kirkham Hospitality, which runs The Lounge in Oswestry and Knock & Snitch. Owner Graeme Kirkham:
"The rota stopped being a Sunday-night argument the week we switched over. The chef stopped being the only person who knows what's in the kitchen. And the EHO turn up to a screen, not a box file." Graeme Kirkham, Owner, The Lounge Oswestry & Knock & Snitch
Who it's for
- Restaurants, cafés and food pubs supervised by the HSE.
- Head chefs who are tired of chasing paper records at the end of a shift.
- Owners with more than one site who want to see every kitchen's checks.
Getting ready for a visit? Use our EHO inspection checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep my Safe Catering records digitally in Ireland?
FSAI's Safe Catering pack is a practical way to run a food safety management system based on HACCP, and its recording forms can be printed free or bought. What matters to an EHO is that you monitor your critical controls and keep accurate records. Digital records that are named, dated and kept up to date can do that job. Check your own plan with your EHO if you're unsure.
What fridge temperature should I record in Ireland?
FSAI says chilled food should be kept between 0°C and 5°C, and that fridges set at 3°C or 4°C will generally keep it there. Hot food should be held above 63°C. Set those as the limits on each unit in your temperature log so a reading outside the range is flagged straight away rather than spotted weeks later.
Does Ireland have a food hygiene rating scheme?
No. Ireland has no hygiene rating stickers. Instead, EHOs from the HSE inspect food businesses and can serve Closure, Improvement or Prohibition Orders where they find serious problems, and the FSAI publishes those orders monthly. In 2025, 127 orders were served. Good records are part of showing an inspector your system works.
Does using a food safety app make my kitchen compliant?
Not on its own. ShiftComplete helps you keep the records an EHO asks to see, such as temperature logs, cleaning and opening checks, incidents and maintenance, in one place with names and times on every entry. Running a safe kitchen and meeting the law stays the responsibility of the food business operator.
Sources
- Temperature control for caterers: FSAI
- Safe Catering Pack record books: FSAI
- Register a food business: FSAI
- Notify the HSE about starting a food business: HSE
- Enforcement: FSAI
- 127 Enforcement Orders served on food businesses in 2025: FSAI
Checked 28 October 2026. This guide is general information, not legal advice.