About restaurant inspections
Summary
Florida law requires that each licensed restaurant in the state be inspected two to three times a year. In this section of EveryBlock, we publish new inspection results throughout Miami-Dade, so you can find out how well restaurants near you are following state law.
The data comes from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and each inspection result includes which violations, if any, were found. Violations can include the presence of insects or rodents, improperly stored toxic items or potentially hazardous food-thawing practices. The results also shows how many violations were critical or non-critical.
This section of EveryBlock also shows you the restaurant or licensee's name and location, the date it was inspected and the category the business is licensed under (permanent food establishment, mobile food dispensing vehicle, catering business or vending machine).
The results will show the "disposition," or the result of each inspection. In most cases, inspectors don't find enough to warrant further action. In other cases, restaurants can be issued warnings or inspectors can recommend emergency orders to immediately close the establishment.
It should be noted that inspection results from a closed restaurant can appear in the state's database as results for a restaurant that opened on the same spot. This occurs when an establishment's corporate name — as opposed to the doing-business-as name — remains the same.
Source
The information comes from the Hotels and Restaurants: Restaurant/Food Service Inspections page of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
The state updates its site weekly, and we at EveryBlock publish new inspection information each day.
What else should I know about the inspection process?
The state notes that each inspection report is a "snapshot" of conditions present at the time of the inspection. An inspection conducted on any given day might not be representative of the overall, long-term conditions at the establishment. The state cites this as its reasoning for not grading or rating establishments.
Inspection results generally fall under three categories. If state standards are met, a follow-up visit by an inspector isn't required until the next routine inspection.
Follow-up inspections are ordered when inspectors note the need for further review, even if there's no immediate threat to the public.
Operations will be closed or operations stopped until violations are corrected after conditions are found that may endanger the health and safety of the public.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation outlines the inspection process on its dispositions page. You can search for individual inspections on the state's License search page.
