County of Los Angeles
Department of Public Health
Environmental Health
5050 Commerce Drive
Baldwin Park, CA 91706
Email:
ehmail@ph.lacounty.gov
Welcome to the Home Kitchen Self-Inspection!
Dear Food Safety Partner:
Each year in the United States it is estimated that 76 million people experience a food borne illness. Some of these cases are
very serious and the CDC estimates that there are 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. In our endeavor to promote proper
food safety practices in the home and reduce the number of food borne illnesses, we present to you a Home Kitchen Self-Inspection
exercise that incorporates many of the same standards that apply to restaurants.
Before beginning this exercise you will be asked to tell us just a few things about yourself and your eating habits. This
information will be used to help us enhance our domestic food safety outreach efforts. Following the brief questionnaire, you
will proceed to the Self-Inspection exercise in which you will be presented with several statements and given the option to
provide either a "Yes," or "No" response for each statement. Upon completion, you will be asked to submit your responses.
Your score will be automatically calculated and a grade (similar to the grades in restaurants) will accompany your final score.
In addition to your grade/score, recommendations to properly address those responses that were considered "violations" on the
Self-Inspection will be detailed. These recommendations are adapted from the California Health and Safety Code which is the
regulatory authority for retail food inspections in California.
As this Self-Inspection exercise was developed to help foster a better understanding of proper food safety practices, your honest
and candid responses are critical so that you can be provided with pertinent information that may be applied in your home
kitchen.
Once again, I would like to welcome you to the website and hope that you find the information provided to you to be useful.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in public health.
Sincerely,
Jonathan E. Fielding, M.D., M.P.H.
Director of Public Health and Health Officer
Motion Picture Catering Operation Permit