Inspections arrive from several directions — environmental health, fire, labour, a sector regulator, the municipality. Most are routine, most are not adversarial, and businesses that treat them as opportunities rather than threats come out of them better.
Know what they will look at, before they come
Inspection criteria are generally not secret. Ask the relevant department what is checked, or find the checklist, and go through it yourself.
An hour of self-inspection catches most of what would otherwise be a finding. It is the single highest-value preparation available and it costs nothing.
On the day
Be cooperative. Ask for identification, and note who attended and when. Accompany them, answer what is asked accurately, and do not volunteer speculation about things you are unsure of.
Where you do not know an answer, say so and offer to provide it — a wrong answer given confidently is worse than a gap you undertake to fill.
Take your own notes as you go, and photographs where something is raised. That record is what you work from afterwards.
Ask for findings in writing
What was found, against what requirement, and what is required to remedy it. A verbal instruction you half-remember is not something you can act on with confidence or evidence having complied with.
Ask what the timeframe is and what happens if it is not met.
Fix it, and prove you fixed it
Address findings promptly and document the remedy — photographs, invoices for work done, records created. Then confirm in writing to the inspector that it is done.
A business that responds quickly and evidences it is treated very differently from one that has to be chased, both at the next visit and in how any subsequent problem is handled.
Records are usually what is actually assessed
Temperature logs, cleaning schedules, maintenance records, training records, employee documents. In a great many inspections the physical state of the premises is fine and the finding is that nothing was being recorded.
Keeping simple records daily is far easier than reconstructing them, and reconstruction is visible.
If you disagree
Say so politely at the time and ask for the specific requirement being relied on. Where you still disagree, most regimes have an internal review or appeal process — use it rather than simply not complying.
Ignoring a finding you consider unreasonable converts a disagreement into an enforcement matter.
Use what they tell you
Inspectors see many businesses in your sector and generally know what good looks like. Asking what you could do better frequently produces more useful advice than a consultant would charge for.
General guidance, not legal advice. Inspection powers, requirements and appeal routes vary by regime; confirm what applies to you.