Food safety software that replaces the paper pack

Zynthio turns your opening checks, temperature logs, HACCP plan and allergen records into one system your team completes on a phone — and produces the printed record an environmental health officer actually asks for.

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The pack works right up until someone asks to see it

Then you find the fridge temperatures for the third week of March were filled in on the same day, in the same pen, by someone who left in April. The paper itself was never the problem. The problem is that paper gives you no way to know a check was missed until it is far too late to do anything about it, and no way to prove the ones you did were done when they say they were.

Zynthio keeps the same daily-diary discipline, and moves it onto the phone in your chef's pocket. Checks appear when they are due. They are timestamped against the person who completed them. And when a reading comes back out of range, the system raises it there and then, rather than leaving a red number on a page nobody reads until the inspector does.

What changes on day one

• Checks are generated automatically every night, so nobody has to remember to start the paperwork
• Every entry carries a time and a name — there is no such thing as filling the week in on Friday
• An out-of-range temperature raises a corrective action instead of being written down and forgotten
• Missed checks are swept every fifteen minutes and alerted to the manager, not discovered at month end
• Six weeks of records is a PDF, not an afternoon in a stock room with a folder

The whole food safety file, in one place

Daily checks that open and close on time

Every checklist has a frequency — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, six-monthly or annual — and, if you want it, an opening and a closing time. A delivery check that must happen between 07:00 and 11:00 is simply not available at three in the afternoon, and turns overdue at 11:01. Daily lists are generated automatically at one minute past midnight, and a manager can reopen a completed check or sign off a trading day once it is done. Checks can be assigned so the kitchen sees kitchen checks and the bar sees bar checks, rather than everyone scrolling past everyone else's work.

Temperature logs, photo evidence and corrective actions

Temperature is a first-class field type, not a text box. Set a minimum and a maximum for a fridge, a freezer, a hot hold or a probe reading and Zynthio validates the number as it is typed. Out of range, and the check raises a defect automatically with the reading attached — the same happens when a yes/no question is answered "no". Any check can take a photo, so "the chiller was reading seven degrees" arrives with a picture of the display rather than an argument three weeks later. Alongside numbers and yes/no you get text, dropdowns and repeating groups, which is how one check covers eleven fridges without eleven separate tasks.

Works offline — the walk-in fridge has no signal

Cellars, cold rooms and walk-in fridges are exactly where the readings are taken and exactly where the Wi-Fi stops. Zynthio keeps today's checks on the phone, so the form opens and can be completed with no connection at all, and the entry is saved to the device the moment it is submitted. When signal comes back — walking back into the kitchen, or the next time the app is opened — everything queued is sent automatically, in the order it was done. A small bar tells the user what is still waiting and lets them sync on the spot. Crucially, the record keeps the time the check was done, not the time it reached us; the sync time is stored separately so an inspector can see both. If somebody else completed the same check while a phone was out of range, their record stands and the offline copy is flagged rather than quietly overwriting it.

A HACCP plan that is an actual document

Zynthio includes a full HACCP plan builder: process steps in order, hazards against each step, a decision tree to identify critical control points, monitoring observations, corrective actions with a complete-and-verify cycle, a named HACCP team, supporting documents and version history. Plans are approved, archived, or duplicated for a second site so you are not rebuilding the same plan five times. The whole plan exports to PDF — and that PDF is the document you hand over, not a screenshot of a screen.

Allergens that come from your recipes

Allergen data lives on the recipe, not on a laminated sheet somebody typed once. Zynthio holds ingredient-level allergen records, flags the fourteen statutory allergens through a keyword library so a new ingredient does not slip through unclassified, and generates an allergen chart you export as a PDF for the kitchen wall or the front of house folder. Recipe costing runs from the same ingredient list, so the allergen matrix and the dish GP can never quietly drift apart.

Ready for the inspection, not scrambling for it

When an officer asks for six weeks of fridge temperatures, you do not go and find a folder. Zynthio produces a PDF of any single checklist or any date range, with the completion time and the person's name on every line. Manager sign-off is recorded separately — a review against a site and a trading date, with comments — so there is evidence that somebody senior actually looked, which is exactly the gap most paper systems have.

And the rest of the compliance file

The same system carries COSHH substance registers, assessments and staff acknowledgements; risk assessments with review dates, outstanding actions and PDF export; equipment records with out-of-service tracking; and a RIDDOR-aligned accident book that prompts you for the document set you would need to defend a personal injury claim. It is one login for the whole folder, across every site you run.

Food safety software, answered plainly

Is Zynthio an SFBB app?

Safer Food, Better Business is the Food Standards Agency's own food safety management system, and Zynthio is built to carry the same discipline: opening and closing checks, a daily diary, and a record of what you did when something went wrong. Zynthio is not an FSA product and is not an official SFBB pack. It is a digital checklist system you set up to mirror the routine your business already follows, with the records kept and timestamped for you instead of living in a lever arch file.

Will an environmental health officer accept digital food safety records?

Yes. There is no legal requirement for food safety records to be kept on paper. The requirement is that a food business keeps records appropriate to its size and nature and can produce them on request. Digital records generally stand up better than paper because every entry carries a time and a named user. Zynthio exports any single checklist, or any date range of them, as a PDF you can print or email during the visit.

Can I record fridge and freezer temperatures in Zynthio?

Yes. Temperature is a built-in field type rather than a free text box, with a minimum and maximum you set per check. A reading outside that range is flagged as it is typed and raises a corrective action automatically. Staff enter readings on the device using the probes and thermometers you already have - and with ZynSMART wireless fridge and freezer sensors coming soon, temperature logs will write themselves around the clock.

Does Zynthio print Natasha's Law (PPDS) allergen labels?

No. Zynthio holds allergen information against your recipes, flags the fourteen statutory allergens, and produces an allergen chart as a PDF for the kitchen and front of house. That covers the allergen information you must be able to give a customer on request. It does not print pre-packed for direct sale ingredient labels, so if you make PPDS items you still need a labelling system and a label printer alongside it.

Does Zynthio work when there is no Wi-Fi in the kitchen?

Yes. The checks due today are held on the phone, so a checklist can be opened and completed in a cellar, a cold room or a walk-in fridge with no signal at all. Each entry is saved to the device as it is submitted and sent automatically when a connection comes back, in the order the work was done. The record keeps the time the check was actually done rather than the time it synced, and the sync time is stored alongside it so an inspector can see both. If somebody else completed the same check while a phone was out of range, their record is kept and the offline copy is flagged instead of overwriting it.

How long does it take to move off the paper pack?

Most single sites are running their first day of digital checks within an afternoon. You add your site, type up the checks you already do, set the frequency and the times they open and close, and choose who completes what. From the following morning the daily lists generate themselves at one minute past midnight. Multi-site groups normally build one site properly, then copy that structure across the estate.

Related guides

Practical guides from the Zynthio team on this part of running a venue.

Supplier Verification: A Checklist Beyond the Paper Trail

Supplier verification goes past collecting certificates. Work through approved lists, traceability, delivery checks and allergen data.

Food Safety Act 1990: Offences, Notices and Your Defence

The Act sets the offences, the notices and the one defence that matters. Here is what it asks of an operator, and what the records have to show.

Cross-Contamination Prevention in Small Kitchens

Separation by space where the room allows it, by time where it does not, and a recorded clean-down in between. Six steps for a one-bench kitchen.

Hygiene Training Records: What Inspectors Actually Look For

Inspectors read training records for fit, not volume: who was trained, in what, when, and how competence was checked. Here is what the law asks for and what to keep.

More operator guides on the Zynthio blog. How we write them: editorial policy.

One login, one bill, one set of sites

Every Zynthio module shares the same sites, the same people and the same reporting. Turn on what you need.

Martyn’s Law Readiness

Procedure templates, a per-site capacity and tier view, a quarterly drill record and a staff briefing.

Zero-Hours Readiness

Guaranteed hours, shift notice and cancellation payment policies, plus the rota record that evidences them.

Rotas, Clock-In & HR

Build rotas against a live labour budget, clock staff in with geofencing, approve timesheets.

Stock & Cashing Up

Stocktakes, purchase orders, delivery scanning, GP tracking and daily cashups with weekly rollups.

EPOS & Till

Connect your existing till for live sales into stock and rotas, plus the ZynthioEPOS till in build.

HACCP Plans

Build a full Codex HACCP plan online, link CCPs to daily checks and export EHO-ready PDFs.

COSHH & Risk Assessments

Substance register with data sheets and PPE, plus scored venue risk assessments with sign-off.

Audits & Mock EHO

Ten UK templates, 400+ inspector-style questions, weighted scoring and a site league table.

Staff Training

Assign courses, track completion by person and site, and issue certificates into the HR file.

Review Management

Google, TripAdvisor and your FSA rating in one dashboard with a reputation score per site.

Table Bookings

Website booking widget, live service diary, deposits and a guest CRM - no per-cover fees, ever.

Refusals Register

A digital refusals book filled from the till, ready for the licensing officer.

Cash Management

Safes, floats, banking and an append-only ledger with daily cash-up reconciliation.

Accounting Export

The daily sales journal, supplier bills and payroll journal in Xero’s own import layouts.

KPIs & Reporting

Clock-in accuracy, labour budget, salary utilisation and reputation, per site and per group.

Recipe Costing

Cost dishes from live stock prices, track GP ex-VAT and tag all 14 UK allergens.

Free GP Calculator

Cost a dish, cost a keg by the pint, or price to a target GP. No account needed, VAT handled properly.

Or start at the beginning on the Zynthio homepage, try it with sample data on the live demo, or read practical operator guides on the blog.

Ready to replace the paper?

Start a full 14-day free trial on every site, or open the demo and look around a sample restaurant with real records in it. No card, no sales call to get in.