About restaurant inspections
Summary
This section of EveryBlock publishes the results of every new restaurant inspection in New York, as reported by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Where we get the data
The data is obtained from the restaurant inspection results online database published by the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).
How often we get the data
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene updates its information regularly and EveryBlock retrieves data from the department's Web site on a nightly basis.
About restaurant inspections in general
The DOHMH publishes a document, Important Information for Food Service Establishments, explaining the inspection process and scoring system.
Essentially, the inspector reviews a location based on a set of “risk factors” for food-borne illnesses. These risk factors include improper personal hygiene practices, improper handwashing, improper cooking and holding temperatures, cross-contamination of food and food equipment, and so on. Each violation is assigned a base point value. Additional points are added to a violation, when necessary, to reflect the severity of the violation. The more severe the violation, the greater the point value for that violation. The lower the number of points accrued by a restaurant during an inspection, the better the inspection result.
A total of 28 or more points in either critical or general violations requires that a Bureau of Food Safety and Community Sanitation Public Health Sanitarian (PHS or inspector) perform another inspection to assure that violations have been corrected and the FSE adequately complies with regulations.
Based on inspection results, the inspector may issue an administrative summons called a Notice of Violation for violations of the New York City (NYC) Health Code, the State Sanitary Code, or other applicable laws. Also note that violations may have been corrected. From a given restaurant inspection page on EveryBlock, click the links "Inspection history on nyc.gov" and "More about restaurant inspections" for more information on the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Web site.
The following disclaimer, which appears on the DOHMH site, applies to this data: "As a result of an inspection, the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene may issue violations to the establishment. Owners have the opportunity to dispute these violations at the Department's Administrative Tribunal, except when there are only general violations that result in fewer than 14 points. In these instances the violations must be corrected, but are not heard at the Administrative Tribunal. The information presented here may reflect inspections that have not yet been adjudicated."