New Hampshire food inspection records are divided between state and local authorities. The first question is who inspected the operation. New Hampshire DHHS Food Protection handles state-regulated establishments, while fifteen cities and towns on the state-hosted list conduct their own food licensing and inspections. Some facility and event types follow another agency or a statutory exemption.
Identify the municipality and operation type before searching for a report. An absent state result cannot prove that no inspection occurred when a local health authority holds the record.
Check the self-inspecting municipality list first
The DHHS self-inspecting cities and towns list available when checked is revised January 2024. It names:
Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester, and Salem.
For an establishment in one of those municipalities, use the local health authority and contact information in the list. Confirm the current contact before sending a request because the PDF is dated and personnel can change.
Local public access is not uniform. For example, the City of Dover’s current Health Inspection page links an interactive inspection map and explains its own A, B, and C point ratings. That local display should not be treated as the statewide report format or imported into another municipality.
For a town outside the list, contact NH DHHS Food Protection at 603-271-4589 or dhhs.foodprotection@dhhs.nh.gov. Ask for a specific existing inspection report using the establishment name, full address, municipality, approximate visit date, and inspection type. If the location changed ownership or name, provide the former identity too. The state contact list does not set one public online-history window for every town; ask the relevant custodian about older records.
Route by facility and event type as well as address
New Hampshire’s Food Service Licensure statute exempts several objects from state departmental licensure and inspection. These include establishments licensed by city or town health officers, temporary or occasional food service outside local jurisdiction, recreation camps, and health care facilities covered by other licensing laws. The state may still inspect an otherwise exempt operation when it has reason to suspect an imminent health hazard.
The DHHS food-safety guide also directs child care centers, youth camps, and nursing homes to other state agency inspection and licensing systems. A temporary event, school cafeteria, nursing-home kitchen, and ordinary restaurant can therefore produce records held by different authorities even within one town.
Do not turn an exemption from one state licensing route into a statement that the activity has no rules or inspection. Local ordinances can apply, and another state program may hold the relevant record. Give the custodian the operation type and activity rather than asking only for “the restaurant record.”
Read the state report’s color and findings together
For establishments inspected under the current New Hampshire He-P 2300 rules, the written report identifies factual deficiencies and, except for food processing plants, assigns a color:
- Green means no priority item violation was identified, or every identified priority item violation was corrected immediately and permanently during the inspection.
- Yellow means a priority item violation was identified and was not corrected immediately and permanently during the inspection.
- Red means an imminent health hazard existed, a corrective action plan failed, or the establishment was operating without a current valid license.
These colors describe the state rule’s inspection outcome. They are not the same as Dover’s local letter grade and should not be assumed to appear on every self-inspecting municipality’s report.
A green designation can still include a priority item that was corrected during the visit. Preserve the finding and its correction note instead of summarizing green as “no violations.” A yellow designation identifies an unresolved priority item at the inspection; it does not by itself describe what happened later. The site’s violation-reading guide can help keep status, finding, and correction evidence separate.
Use the stated correction deadline
Under He-P 2305.02, deficiencies should be corrected during the inspection when practicable. For most food establishments, a priority item that cannot be corrected immediately and permanently requires a temporary correction plus a specified permanent-correction period of no more than ten calendar days, or a corrective action plan. Priority foundation items also have a maximum ten-day correction period. Core items have a maximum of 90 days.
A corrective action plan states how and when the deficiencies will be corrected and how recurrence will be prevented. DHHS can verify it through submitted materials, a follow-up inspection, or a renewal inspection. Record which method and date the file actually shows. A deadline alone is not evidence that the correction was completed.
Build the sequence as separate records: original inspection and color, item classification, stated correction date or plan, verification event, and final agency action. The reinspection follow-up guide can help organize those steps without merging them.
Match closure and reopening to the responsible authority
For a state-regulated establishment, He-P 2306.06 requires operations to stop for an imminent health hazard such as a qualifying water or power interruption, sewage backup, fire, flood, chemical exposure, an employee infection specified in the Food Code, or a severe unsanitary condition threatening contamination. The rule allows unaffected areas to remain in operation and includes an approved-emergency-plan exception for certain extended utility interruptions. After a required stoppage, the establishment needs DHHS approval before resuming operations; the department can approve resumption when the hazard no longer exists or a plan mitigates all threats.
Local authority is separate. RSA 147:1 allows a local health officer acting under an approved sanitary code to close a restaurant without a hearing for up to ten days or until the violation is corrected and the sanitary condition is approved. Request the closure and later approval from the same authority that issued the action.
A red state report, a local adverse grade, a closure order, and a reopening approval are different records. State which one you found and its date. If the public page stops at an inspection result, request the later report or agency disposition before claiming that an operation remained closed or reopened.
Official sources checked September 27, 2026.