We’re excited to announce the release of INSPECT™ V3, our biggest update to INSPECT™ yet.
Over the past year, we’ve been working closely with Environmental Health professionals and Local Authorities to understand not only what they need from digital inspection software, but how it needs to fit into the reality of carrying out food hygiene inspections.
We’ve now trialled INSPECT™ with more than 20 Local Authorities, and the feedback we received has played a major part in shaping V3.
It helped us identify what was missing, what could be simplified and, importantly, where the software needed to better reflect existing Local Authority inspection workflows.
The result is a completely redesigned INSPECT™.
A simpler, more structured inspection
One of the biggest changes in V3 is the inspection form itself.
We’ve completely redesigned the layout based on feedback from users, simplifying the interface and making questions more structured and easier to navigate during an inspection.
But the changes go beyond how the form looks.
INSPECT™ V3 now enables inspectors to record compliances as well as non-compliances.
Traditionally, inspection reports tend to focus on what went wrong. However, recording compliance provides a much more complete picture of the premises at the time of inspection.
It creates an audit trail showing not only the problems identified, but also what the food business was doing correctly.
That provides better evidence of the inspection, a clearer history of the premises and more useful information when officers return in the future.
Actions that follow the business
We’re also introducing a new action tracking system.
Actions identified during an inspection will remain associated with the food business and be carried forward to subsequent inspections.
This means an inspector will be able to start a new inspection with visibility of the outstanding actions from the previous visit, rather than having to find and record the same information again.
It will reduce repetition, provide greater continuity between inspections and make it much easier to see what has changed since the last visit.
A better way to capture evidence
Media uploads have had a major overhaul too.
Inspectors can now crop images, add captions and reuse previously uploaded images, making it easier to build a clear visual record of an inspection rather than using a separate device to take photos.
Images become part of the inspection evidence rather than simply being individual attachments, helping officers provide better context around their findings and actions.
More templates, legislation and standard actions
We’ve significantly expanded the INSPECT™ template library.
V3 introduces five new premises-specific inspection templates, designed around the activities and risks associated with different types of food businesses. These include templates for care homes, hot food takeaways, butchers and meat premises and events, alongside other premises-specific inspection scenarios.
We’ve also expanded our legislation and guidance library, which now references more than 30 pieces of legislation, articles and supporting frameworks.
Alongside this, inspectors can access more than 300 standard phrases and action statements, helping them record common findings and required actions more quickly and consistently, while still retaining the flexibility to add their own wording where needed.
Making risk easier to understand
V3 introduces a new visual approach to displaying risk.
An inspection’s risk rating is now shown on a coloured scale, giving inspectors an immediate visual indication of the level of risk associated with the premises.
We’ve also redesigned the food business profile to bring together the different elements of a business more clearly, including its activities, risks, inspection information and associated records.
The aim is simple: when an officer opens a business, the important information should be easy to find.
Faster and more secure behind the scenes
Not every improvement in V3 is immediately visible.
We’ve also made a number of changes behind the scenes to improve the performance, reliability and security of INSPECT™.
As the number of features within INSPECT™ has grown, it has been important that the application remains fast and straightforward to use, particularly when officers are working out in the field.
V3 gives us a much stronger foundation for the next stage of INSPECT™’s development.
Built from feedback
The most important part of V3 has been the input we’ve received from the people actually carrying out and managing inspections.
“We worked with a number of Local Authorities on V3 to better understand their requirements and what features and improvements were needed to make INSPECT™ better serve users.
“V3 makes it even easier and faster for inspectors to complete inspections, helping them carry out more inspections while producing accurate, consistent reports.
“We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who gave us their time, shared feedback and helped shape V3.”
That feedback continues to influence our roadmap.
We don’t want to simply digitise an existing paper process. We want to remove unnecessary administration, reduce repetition and give Environmental Health teams better tools to capture, manage and use inspection information.
And we’re not stopping here
INSPECT™ V3 is the foundation for several more developments already underway.
We’re currently working on a dedicated Food Standards inspection form, support for the Scottish Food Hygiene Information Scheme (FHIS) and further improvements to how inspection information, actions and food business data are managed.
There are also some more exciting announcements coming later in 2026 and into early 2027.
For now, we’re delighted to get V3 into the hands of more Environmental Health teams.