Health inspections focus primarily on factors that prevent foodborne illness: safe food temperatures, proper handwashing, clean and sanitized surfaces, pest control, and employee health practices. Inspectors use a risk-based system that ranks every item they check into three categories, with the most attention going to violations that could directly make someone sick.
How Violations Are Ranked
The FDA Food Code divides inspection items into three tiers based on how much risk they pose to public health. Understanding these tiers helps clarify why inspectors spend more time on certain things than others.
- Priority items are the violations that most directly cause foodborne illness. These require immediate correction or correction within 24 hours. A cooler holding raw chicken at room temperature, for example, would fall here.
- Priority foundation items support the priority items and keep them in compliance. Think of these as the systems and habits that prevent the serious violations from happening. These must be corrected immediately or within 10 days.
- Core items relate to general sanitation and facility maintenance. A stained ceiling tile or a missing light cover would be a core violation. These typically need to be fixed by the next routine inspection.
Inspectors weight their reports around this hierarchy. A single priority violation carries far more consequence than several core violations, because it represents an immediate risk to someone eating the food.
Temperature Control
Temperature is one of the first and most important things an inspector checks. Bacteria that cause food poisoning multiply fastest between 40°F and 140°F, a range known as the danger zone. Inspectors will probe foods in coolers, on prep lines, and in hot-holding equipment to verify they’re outside that window.
Cold foods must be held at 41°F or below. Hot foods must stay at 135°F or above. For cooking, the minimum safe internal temperatures vary by protein:
- Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck, all forms including ground): 165°F
- Ground beef, pork, or sausage: 160°F
- Steaks, roasts, and chops (beef, pork, lamb): 145°F with a three-minute rest
- Fish: 145°F
- Egg dishes: 160°F
- Leftovers and reheated foods: 165°F
Inspectors also check that food is being cooled properly. Cooked food must move from 135°F down to 70°F within two hours, then from 70°F to 41°F within the next four hours. Cooling violations are among the most common priority findings because large batches of soup, rice, or beans cool slowly without proper technique.
Handwashing and Employee Hygiene
Inspectors look at both the behavior and the infrastructure. A compliant handwashing station needs hot and cold (or tempered) running water, soap, and sanitary single-use towels or an approved drying device. Common towels are prohibited. Signs directing employees to wash their hands must be posted in all restrooms.
Beyond checking that sinks are stocked and accessible, inspectors watch how employees actually use them. Proper technique means washing with warm water and soap, rinsing, and drying with a clean towel. Employees should be washing before starting work, after touching raw meat, after handling trash, after using the restroom, and after any activity that could contaminate their hands. An inspector who sees a cook go from handling raw chicken to assembling a salad without washing up is looking at a priority violation.
Employee health matters too. Workers with symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, or jaundice, or those diagnosed with certain illnesses like norovirus, hepatitis A, or Salmonella, must be excluded or restricted from food handling. Inspectors may ask to see illness reporting policies or employee health agreements.
Cross-Contamination Prevention
Inspectors check how raw and ready-to-eat foods are stored and handled relative to each other. In a walk-in cooler, raw chicken stored on a shelf above ready-to-eat salad greens is a priority violation because juices can drip and contaminate food that won’t be cooked again before serving.
The expected storage order from top to bottom in a cooler follows cooking temperatures: ready-to-eat foods on top, then whole fish and steaks, then ground meats, then poultry at the bottom. Inspectors also look at cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils to confirm that equipment used for raw proteins isn’t being reused for ready-to-eat items without proper washing, rinsing, and sanitizing in between.
Sanitization of Surfaces and Equipment
Every food contact surface needs to be washed, rinsed, and sanitized. Inspectors test sanitizer concentrations using chemical test strips, and the numbers need to hit specific thresholds. For chlorine-based sanitizer, the standard is at least 50 parts per million (ppm) in a low-temperature dishwasher’s final rinse and around 200 ppm for manual sanitizing solutions. Quaternary ammonium sanitizers require 200 ppm. Iodine-based solutions need 12.5 ppm.
If your sanitizer bucket tests below the required concentration, it won’t kill bacteria effectively. If it tests too high, it can leave chemical residue on surfaces that contact food. Inspectors expect to see test strips on site and staff who know how to use them. They’ll also check that dishwashers are reaching proper temperatures (typically 180°F for the final rinse on high-temperature machines) and that three-compartment sinks are being used correctly: wash, rinse, sanitize, then air dry.
Pest Control
Evidence of pests is a major red flag during any inspection. Inspectors look for live or dead insects and rodents, droppings, gnaw marks, chewed packaging, grease trails along walls, and egg casings. The severity depends on the extent of the problem.
A single dead cockroach or a few mouse droppings in a storage area is a moderate finding that typically requires correction within 30 days. But an extensive infestation, such as live cockroaches spotted in multiple areas of the kitchen or a live rat anywhere inside the establishment, is treated as a severe or priority violation requiring action within 24 hours. In extreme cases, this can result in immediate closure.
Inspectors also check for conditions that invite pests: gaps under exterior doors, holes around pipes, open dumpster lids, standing water, and food stored directly on the floor. These are the kinds of core or priority foundation issues that, if left unaddressed, lead to the serious infestations.
Food Storage and Labeling
Proper food storage covers several areas inspectors look at together. All food must be stored at least six inches off the floor. Containers need to be covered and clearly labeled, especially anything that’s been removed from its original packaging. Date marking is required for ready-to-eat foods held for more than 24 hours. Most jurisdictions allow a maximum of seven days from preparation (including the day the food was made) before the item must be discarded.
Chemicals like cleaning supplies and pesticides must be stored separately from food and food contact surfaces. An unlabeled spray bottle near a prep station is a common violation that inspectors flag quickly.
Certified Food Protection Manager
Most jurisdictions require at least one certified food protection manager to be responsible for food safety at each establishment. This person has passed an accredited exam covering food safety principles, temperature control, cross-contamination, and sanitation. Inspectors will ask to see the certificate and may check whether it’s current, since certification typically needs to be renewed every five years.
Having a certified manager on staff isn’t just a paperwork requirement. Establishments with trained managers tend to have fewer critical violations because someone on the team understands why the rules exist and can train other employees accordingly. Inspectors often direct corrective action conversations to this person during the inspection.
Physical Condition of the Facility
The building itself gets scrutinized too. Inspectors check that floors, walls, and ceilings are smooth, cleanable, and in good repair. Cracked tiles, peeling paint, and damaged ceiling panels can harbor bacteria and make effective cleaning impossible. Ventilation hoods must be functioning and free of heavy grease buildup. Lighting needs to be adequate in food prep and storage areas, and light fixtures above exposed food should have shatter-resistant covers.
Plumbing is another focus. Inspectors verify there’s no backflow risk (where contaminated water could flow backward into the clean water supply), that grease traps are maintained, and that wastewater is draining properly. A sewage backup or plumbing failure in a food prep area can trigger an immediate closure.