How inspections & follow-ups work

DBPR is the single state agency that licenses and inspects every Florida restaurant, under one set of rules. Differences between restaurants reflect what inspectors found, not local rules. The Candor status is calculated the same way for every restaurant.

Inspections are unannounced. Most licensed restaurants get one or more routine inspections a year, and higher-risk establishments are visited more often. A complaint can trigger an extra inspection at any time.

Findings are grouped into three levels, shown here as High, Medium, and Low (DBPR officially names them High Priority, Intermediate, and Basic). High flags what is most likely to contribute to illness, such as unsafe food temperatures. A restaurant’s history lists how many of each were found at every visit.

When findings are not corrected during the visit, DBPR schedules a follow-up (callback) inspection to confirm the fix. The timeline lists every visit in order, so repeat findings are visible across dates.

If an inspector finds an immediate threat to public health, such as no hot water, a sewage problem, or pests, DBPR can order the restaurant to stop operating until a follow-up confirms the fix. The closure history shows the closed and reopened dates; the gap is how long the correction took.

Inspectors work from the same statewide checklist in every kitchen: food temperatures during cooking, cooling, and holding; cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food; handwashing facilities and employee hygiene; evidence of pests; dishwashing and sanitizing; how food is stored, labeled, and dated; and the physical condition of the kitchen itself. A single visit can log dozens of individual observations, each recorded against a specific rule.

Counts alone can mislead. Three basic findings about a scuffed floor and a missing test strip tell a very different story from one high-priority finding about chicken held at unsafe temperatures. Look at severity first, then at the pattern: a finding that repeats across visits says more about how a kitchen runs than a one-off caught and corrected the same day. Follow-up visits that come back clean are a good sign the operator takes the process seriously.

Florida inspection records are public. You can read them here, request them from the state, or look any establishment up on the DBPR portal directly — every restaurant page on Candor Dining links to its official record. If you believe a restaurant made you sick or you saw something concerning, you can file a complaint with the DBPR, which can trigger an unannounced inspection. Complaints go to the state, not to Candor Dining — we publish outcomes; the state investigates.

If your listing looks wrong, write to us through the contact page — we will show you exactly which official records it reflects and fix any discrepancy with the source data on our side. The underlying inspection record itself can only be amended by the DBPR. Summaries here are computed the same way for every establishment, so the fastest way to improve a summary is the honest one: pass the next inspection.

Open any restaurant to see its inspection timeline and, when there is one, its closure history.