About food establishment inspections
Summary
This section of EveryBlock will show you recent results of restaurant inspections in Charlotte — from four-star eateries to the neighborhood meat market. You'll be able to find out whether establishments in your neighborhood passed or failed inspections, and learn how and if they violated health code.
For each inspection, the Mecklenburg County Health Department also provides each establishment's name and address, the inspection date and comments from inspectors. Also noted is each establishment's status — open for business, suspended, etc.
EveryBlock publishes inspections of restaurants, food stands, meat markets, private-school lunchrooms and public-school lunchrooms. Each establishment must post its inspection grade.
Source
The data comes from the Mecklenburg County Health Department. The county collects new inspection data each day, though it can take a few days before inspection results are entered into the system. We at EveryBlock publish the new data shortly thereafter. You can search for individual inspection results on the health department's site.
How the inspection process works
Food service establishments in Charlotte are inspected by the health department's Food and Facilities Sanitation Program.
It's unusual for establishments to fail inspections, but it happens when they score below 70 points out of 100. Establishments begin inspections with a score of 100, and each violation carries a deduction worth 0.5 to 5.0 points.
When an establishment fails an inspection, its permit is revoked and it must apply for a new one. Establishments also can request a re-inspection.
A violation is "critical" when it can contribute to a food-borne illness. It can pertain to such things as inadequate cooking, poor personal hygiene of food handlers, contamination of food-contact surfaces and/or food from unapproved sources. For more, read the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resource's Rules Governing the Sanitation of Food Service Establishments.
Critical violations can be corrected during inspections and no more than one-half of the total point value shall be deducted when the violation wasn't documented on a previous inspection and correction of the item is shown on the inspection form.
If those criteria don't apply, establishments only have 10 calendar days to correct violations.
Sometimes, establishments can score more than 100 points. That's because they can get a 2-point bonus if a manager employed there has passed an approved food-safety course in the past three years.
Some establishments are inspected once a quarter, some are inspected once a year. North Carolina provides a full list of facility types, and includes information about inspection frequency.
