Articles
September 25, 2025
At any restaurant, context impacts an inspector’s focus
During National Food Safety Month, our safety experts advise on making your inspection successful.
During an inspection, the inspector may focus on different priorities, including specialized requirements at various operations.
No two restaurant inspections are exactly alike, and depending on the type of operation, the inspector may focus on different priorities. They may include specialized requirements for health-care-related kitchens or how hot-holding practices are dealt with at operations such as buffet restaurants or cafeterias.
They covered three main points:
“When we first walk into a restaurant, we introduce ourselves, take a quick look at the menu, and wait on the person in charge or the manager to come and greet us,” she said. “Then, we start asking questions. ‘Are you cooking anything today? Are you cooling anything? Is anything in the process of reheating? Did you receive any food today?’ If the answer to any of these is yes, that becomes our top priority and then we can prioritize everything else we see during the quick walkthrough. Later, as part of a general, final sweep through the facility, we identify and address the less critical violations.”
She added that the biggest food safety risk factors are:
“What we find, is that operators are really eager to fix things that cost them points on their inspections,” he said. “If an operator scores an ‘85’, he or she wants those fixed and the score to go back to 100. We still write up core violations, but we try to prioritize our inspections. It’s really a matter of focus. If an operator sees the inspector is spending half the time in dry storage, then they’ll go and fix everything in dry storage. If the inspector spends half the time on the cookline, watching cooling and cooking temps and those kinds of things, then that’s where the operator is going to make necessary adjustments. I think it really does help for them to know what to focus on.”
Thompson advised operators to think of inspections as a collaborative effort for continual quality improvement. She said inspection feedback is an opportunity for improvement, not a penalty.
“I know we're issuing points and grades, but the process should be a collaborative effort to improve your food safety and prevent a foodborne illness outbreak from occurring,” she said. "I also want to urge operators to ask questions during their inspections to clarify the risk of whatever the violation on the grade sheet is, and to gather ways of mitigating that risk. Ask your inspector why it’s a problem and what can help solve the problem long term.”
Geddes added that his biggest piece of advice to operators is to see inspectors as food safety partners, and to ask them questions so they understand why a certain practice is high risk, or why a certain rule is in place.
“We don't expect an operator to be a passive part of the process,” he said. “We’re here to help. I always say I'm the most inexpensive food safety consultant they’ll ever have, so take advantage of that. The focus is to build relationships and get to a safe place with our food.”
Learn more about National Food Safety Month and ServSafe
How inspections work in the real world
During the National Restaurant Association’s recent talk, “Food Safety in Focus: How Context Shapes Inspection Priorities,” Patrick Guzzle, Association Vice President of Food Science and Industry; Craig Geddes, Consultation and Training Officer for the Oregon Health Authority; and Cassandra Thompson, Environmental Health Supervisor for the Mecklenburg County Government in Charlotte, N.C., discussed how inspections work in real-world environments and what they mean for restaurant operators.They covered three main points:
- How inspection protocols are applied across different settings
- Common pitfalls operators should avoid; and
- Context-specific considerations that every kitchen should be prepared for
Taking the right approach
According to Thompson, during restaurant inspections, the county of Mecklenburg uses a risk-based approach featuring guidance provided by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. It consists of a 2- to 5-minute walkthrough of the kitchen where the inspector prioritizes the risk factors he or she has observed, from highest risk to lowest.“When we first walk into a restaurant, we introduce ourselves, take a quick look at the menu, and wait on the person in charge or the manager to come and greet us,” she said. “Then, we start asking questions. ‘Are you cooking anything today? Are you cooling anything? Is anything in the process of reheating? Did you receive any food today?’ If the answer to any of these is yes, that becomes our top priority and then we can prioritize everything else we see during the quick walkthrough. Later, as part of a general, final sweep through the facility, we identify and address the less critical violations.”
Watch the discussion On Demand
She added that the biggest food safety risk factors are:
- Poor personal hygiene
- Improper food holding times or temperatures
- Contaminated equipment
- Lack of protection from contamination
- Inadequate cooking or food obtained from unsafe sources.
“What we find, is that operators are really eager to fix things that cost them points on their inspections,” he said. “If an operator scores an ‘85’, he or she wants those fixed and the score to go back to 100. We still write up core violations, but we try to prioritize our inspections. It’s really a matter of focus. If an operator sees the inspector is spending half the time in dry storage, then they’ll go and fix everything in dry storage. If the inspector spends half the time on the cookline, watching cooling and cooking temps and those kinds of things, then that’s where the operator is going to make necessary adjustments. I think it really does help for them to know what to focus on.”
Thompson advised operators to think of inspections as a collaborative effort for continual quality improvement. She said inspection feedback is an opportunity for improvement, not a penalty.
“I know we're issuing points and grades, but the process should be a collaborative effort to improve your food safety and prevent a foodborne illness outbreak from occurring,” she said. "I also want to urge operators to ask questions during their inspections to clarify the risk of whatever the violation on the grade sheet is, and to gather ways of mitigating that risk. Ask your inspector why it’s a problem and what can help solve the problem long term.”
Geddes added that his biggest piece of advice to operators is to see inspectors as food safety partners, and to ask them questions so they understand why a certain practice is high risk, or why a certain rule is in place.
“We don't expect an operator to be a passive part of the process,” he said. “We’re here to help. I always say I'm the most inexpensive food safety consultant they’ll ever have, so take advantage of that. The focus is to build relationships and get to a safe place with our food.”
Learn more about National Food Safety Month and ServSafe
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