Inheriting someone else’s compliance problem, against the clock
The Royal Marine Hotel found Paddl through Google while researching the best food safety applications on the market. A new management team had just taken on the operation: a full-service hotel running breakfast, lunch and evening dining alongside room service, housekeeping, kitchen duties, maintenance and groundskeeping. The Environmental Health Officer had already visited under the new management and set out a series of critical improvements needed to bring food safety practices up to standard.
The problems came with the building
A new management team inherits whatever the last one left behind. The findings were against the operation, not against the people who had just walked in, and the clock was already running when they arrived.
Paperwork is not a system
Beyond some existing paperwork there was nothing holding it together. No HACCP plan, no SFBB pack, no checklists, and nothing that would show an officer the operation was under control day to day.
The scale of it was overwhelming
Within the first week of contact the team said as much. What the EHO had outlined was significant, and none of it could be done gradually.
A hotel is a lot more than a kitchen
Three food services a day plus room service, and then housekeeping, maintenance and grounds on top. Whatever went in had to cover the whole operation, not just the pass.
The officer was already coming back
This was not a deadline anyone could push. The reinspection date set the pace, and the work had to be finished and working before it arrived.
Six systems, built in five days
Paddl had five days. Rather than hand over a login and point at a help centre, the system was built alongside the team. Each section came together in under an hour, and onboarding and verification ran across three scheduled video calls so the team could run it themselves once the officer had gone.
A full HACCP plan, including flow diagrams
The plan an officer asks for first, built out rather than downloaded, with the process flow diagrams that show how food actually moves through the kitchen.
HACCPOpen and close checklists
The two moments of the day where standards slip, turned into prompted checks that the team completes on a phone and that leave a timestamped record behind.
Routines and checksWeekly cleaning schedules
Scheduled, assigned and signed off, so cleaning is evidenced rather than assumed. This is one of the areas officers look at hardest when confidence in management is in question.
Routines and checksTemperature records
Fridge, freezer, cooking and hot holding checks prompted at the point they are done, which is what makes a temperature log evidence rather than a form somebody fills in later.
Routines and checksA full equipment list to support maintenance
Every piece of kit recorded in one place, so servicing, faults and probe calibration have somewhere to live and maintenance stops being reactive.
Equipment tracking
The officer came back on the Friday
The EHO returned on the Friday, less than a week after the first conversation. The hotel passed.
Passed with flying colours
Everything the officer had asked for was in place and running, and the team could show it rather than describe it.
The biggest improvement the officer had seen
They noted it as the highest level of improvement they had seen across any business they had inspected.
The team could run it without us
Three video calls meant the system was understood, not just installed. Nobody was left guessing which button to press once the officer had gone.
It stuck after the inspection
The Royal Marine continues to use Paddl for day-to-day operations and ongoing compliance across the business, not just for the reinspection.
The highest level of improvement across any business they have inspected.
This is worth reading twice if
- You have taken over a site and inherited compliance problems you did not create
- An Environmental Health Officer has given you improvements to make and a date to make them by
- You have paperwork, but nothing tying it into a system an officer would recognise
- You want the setup done with you rather than handed over as a login and a help centre
- Your operation runs well beyond the kitchen: rooms, housekeeping, maintenance and grounds
Questions people ask about this
How quickly can Paddl set up a HACCP plan and an SFBB pack?
At the Royal Marine each section was built in under an hour, and the full system was in place in five days. How long yours takes depends on the size of the operation and how many food processes you run, but the build is measured in hours rather than weeks.
Do you get help setting it up, or just a login?
Onboarding and verification ran across three scheduled video calls, with the team working through the system as it was built rather than being left to figure it out afterwards. That is the part that made it stick once the officer had gone.
We already have EHO improvement actions against us. Is it too late?
No. That is exactly the position the Royal Marine was in. The officer had already visited and set out critical improvements before Paddl was involved, and the reinspection was the following week.
Does it cover more than the kitchen?
Yes. The Royal Marine runs breakfast, lunch and evening dining plus room service, housekeeping, maintenance and groundskeeping. Alongside the food safety work, the setup included a full equipment list so ongoing maintenance had somewhere to live.
Does Paddl work in Scotland?
Yes. Dunoon is in Argyll, and Scotland runs the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, which awards a Pass or Improvement Required rather than the 0 to 5 star FHRS used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Paddl supports both.