Food Establishments

Want to know how your favorite restaurant handles food safety?  You can read our inspection reports.  These reports tell you the conditions we saw at the time of inspection.  Reports may not reflect corrective actions the establishment made or the current condition.

Food establishments

Food establishment reports include:

• Restaurants
• Grocery stores
• Delis
• Convenience stores
• Bars
• Worksite cafeterias
• Coffee shops
• Ice cream shops
• Catering kitchens
• Private organizations serving the public
• Food establishments can be permanent, mobile, or seasonal

To look up health inspection reports, visit this site:  Restaurant and Food Service Inspections

Why we do health inspections

We do health inspections to make sure establishments are handling food safely.  When food is not handled safely, people can get sick from eating it.

How we do health inspections

Routine Inspection - At least once a year we do a routine inspection of restaurants and retail food stores.  They are usually unannounced.  Our sanitarians look at how food is handled, the temperature of the food, and the hygiene and health of employees. Sometimes we schedule inspections to make sure the appropriate staff will be there.

Reinspection - When we find health code violations on a routine inspection, we conduct a follow-up inspection.

Our inspection reports include:

• The restaurant or retail food store name
• Address
• Inspection date
• Type of inspection (routine or reinspection) and what the health inspector observed
• The actions needed to correct any violation 

Wisconsin Food Code

Health code violation

The five most common violations that cause foodborne illness outbreaks are:

• Keeping hot or cold food at the wrong temperature
• Undercooking food
• Dirty utensils and equipment
• Poor personal hygiene
• Food from unsafe sources
  

Types of Health Code Violations:

Priority violations must be corrected immediately, or within a few days.  If not fixed properly, they are more likely to cause foodborne illness.  If these violations cannot be corrected during the inspection, a reinspection is required.

Core violations relate to cleaning and maintenance.  Some examples are dirty floors and plumbing leaks.

"Repeat" means the violation was seen and documented on previous routine inspection reports.

"Corrected Onsite" means the violation was corrected during the routine inspection.