About
What this is, and what it deliberately is not
RestaurantSafe is an independent public-interest project documenting how restaurant inspection works across all 51 American jurisdictions, and giving operators a free way to check their own practices before someone else does.
What we do
Three things. We document, for every state and the District of Columbia, who inspects restaurants, where the official record lives, what the public actually gets to see, and whether the result must be posted. We explain the system in plain language. And we recognize restaurants that turned a poor record around.
What we do not do
We do not republish or host individual restaurants' inspection scores, and we do not maintain a searchable database of them. The government portals are the authoritative source, they are updated constantly, and a stale mirror of them would do more harm than good. We link you to the record instead of copying it.
We do not publish a list of poor performers. We explain that decision on the recognition page.
We are not a government agency, we have no enforcement authority, and nothing here is legal advice. Your health department's word is final over ours in every case.
How the state record was built
Each of the 51 entries was assembled from primary government sources: the state agency that holds regulatory authority, its official inspection lookup, the rule or code text setting out posting requirements, and the FDA's record of which Food Code edition the jurisdiction has adopted. Where inspection is delegated, we list representative county and city portals rather than pretending a statewide search exists.
Where we could not confirm something from an official source, the field reads “not confirmed” instead of a plausible guess. We would rather show a gap than manufacture certainty — a fabricated posting rule is worse than an honest blank.
Records were last reviewed in August 2026. Portals move, agencies reorganize and codes get adopted, so some links will age. Tell us when one does.
Independence
We are editorially independent. Recognition is decided on the public record, there is no advertising on recipient pages, and recognition can be withdrawn if the record changes materially. Any site visit is unannounced.
That posture is standard for anyone handling health information. Yelp, for instance, keeps health alerts outside of anything a business can influence commercially (Yelp Trust & Safety). It is the only way the information stays worth reading.
Corrections policy
If anything on this site is wrong, we want to fix it, and we would rather hear about it from you than leave it standing.
What we will correct here: agency names and links, inspection lookup URLs, result formats, posting requirements, food code editions, open data references, and anything factually inaccurate in our explanatory writing. Corrections are made promptly and the review date on the page is updated.
What we cannot correct: the contents of a government inspection report. We do not hold that record and cannot amend it. Contact the issuing health department — see if you believe the record is wrong.
Write to corrections@restaurantsafe.org with the page, the field, and the official source that shows the right answer.
Primary sources
Every state page carries its own government sources. These are the national ones behind the explanatory material.
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| FDA Food Code | The model-code structure, the four-year publication cycle, and the 2022 edition being the most recent full edition |
| FDA Retail Food Risk Factor Study | The ten foodborne illness risk factors that structure the self-check and the explainer |
| CDC Food Safety | Annual national foodborne illness, hospitalization and death estimates |
| Yelp Trust & Safety | Precedent for treating health information as commercially uninfluenceable |
| Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 425.16 | Public-interest speech protection referenced on the recognition page |
| State and county health agencies | All 51 jurisdiction records — each cited on its own state page |
Get in touch
corrections@restaurantsafe.org
Wrong link, outdated rule, changed portal.
Or write to hello@restaurantsafe.org.
Health departments: tell us if we have described your program incorrectly.