Restaurant inspections in the US are carried out by state, county or city health departments, usually without notice. Inspectors record violations, which most codes split into priority or critical items linked to foodborne illness and core or non-critical items about general upkeep. Many health departments publish results online. Read the last few reports rather than one, and look for repeated priority violations rather than any single minor item.
An inspection report is one of the few public, independent records of what happens in a kitchen. Here is how to find one and what the parts mean.
There is no single national restaurant inspection in the United States. Retail food safety is regulated at the state and local level, so the inspector who visits a restaurant usually works for a county or city health department, or for the state.
Most of those agencies base their rules on the FDA Food Code, a model code published by the US Food and Drug Administration for states and localities to adopt. Jurisdictions adopt different editions and add their own requirements, which is why the details vary from one place to the next.
Routine inspections are generally unannounced. Health departments also carry out follow-up inspections to confirm problems were fixed, and complaint inspections when a member of the public reports a concern or an illness.
How often a restaurant is inspected depends on the jurisdiction and on how risky its operation is. A kitchen cooking and cooling large batches of raw ingredients is usually inspected more often than a shop selling packaged food.
Items directly connected to foodborne illness. Typical examples include food held at unsafe temperatures, food not cooled or reheated properly, staff not washing hands, raw meat stored where it can drip onto ready-to-eat food, and sick employees working with food.
The FDA Food Code calls these priority items, with a related category called priority foundation for things that support them, such as a missing thermometer. Many local codes use the older word critical.
Items about general sanitation, maintenance and facilities: a cracked floor tile, a dirty vent hood, a missing light shield, a door that does not close properly. They matter, but they are not usually an immediate risk to the food.
Reports often note whether a violation was corrected on site during the inspection. A priority item fixed on the spot is a different story from one that appears again on the next visit.
Some jurisdictions turn an inspection into a letter grade posted at the door; New York City and Los Angeles County are the best-known examples. Others use a numerical score, a colored placard, a simple pass or conditional pass, or no public sign at all and an online database instead.
Because the systems differ, a grade in one city is not comparable to a score in another. Within one jurisdiction, though, the results are a useful way to compare restaurants and to see whether a single kitchen is improving or slipping over time.
Find the official database. Search the name of the county or city plus “restaurant inspections”. Use the health department's own site rather than a third-party copy, which can be out of date.
Read more than one report. An inspection is a snapshot of a single visit. Three or four reports over a couple of years show you the pattern.
Look for repeats. The same priority violation appearing visit after visit is the clearest warning sign on any report.
Check the date. A restaurant that changed owners or chefs may have little in common with its report from two years ago.
If you think you got sick after eating out, report it to the local health department. Those reports are how outbreaks get noticed. For choosing where to eat in the first place, see how to find good food near you, or search the directory.
The questions people ask most about restaurant inspection reports.
Mostly state, county or city health departments. There is no single national restaurant inspection. Most jurisdictions base their rules on the FDA Food Code, a model code that states and localities adopt and adapt, which is why the details differ from place to place.
In most places, yes. Many health departments publish recent inspection results online, searchable by restaurant name or address, and some require a grade or placard to be posted at the entrance. Search the name of the county or city plus restaurant inspections to find the official database.
A violation directly linked to the risk of foodborne illness, such as food held at unsafe temperatures, poor handwashing, or raw and ready-to-eat foods stored together. The FDA Food Code calls these priority violations; many local codes call them critical. Core or non-critical violations relate to general sanitation and maintenance.
Not automatically. Most inspections find something, and many violations are corrected during the visit. Look for patterns instead: repeated priority violations across several inspections, or a closure or failed re-inspection, tell you far more than a single minor item.
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