Outside New York City, county health departments and State District Offices ran 33,459 routine inspections of restaurant permits between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. 9,056 of them (27.1%) found at least one critical, or “red,” violation, and 3,538 (10.6%) found two or more. Only 113 (0.3%) ended with a red violation still uncorrected when the inspector left. New York State gives no letter grade or numeric score outside the city, so the record you read is a count of red and blue violations.
These are our counts from the Department of Health dataset Food Service Establishment Inspections: Beginning 2005 (2hcc-shji, rows updated October 22, 2026, with inspections through October 16). To check one restaurant, start with Food Service Establishment: Last Inspection, the lookup the Department of Health links from its inspection data page.
Routine restaurant inspections, October 2025 to September 2026:
| Measure | Count | Out of | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine inspections | 33,459 | — | — |
| At least one red (critical) violation | 9,056 | 33,459 | 27.1% |
| Two or more red violations | 3,538 | 33,459 | 10.6% |
| A red violation still uncorrected at the end of the visit | 113 | 33,459 | 0.3% |
| Repeat pairs (Oct 2024 to Sep 2026): next routine visit red again after a red one | 4,738 | 10,211 pairs | 46.4% |
| Repeat pairs: next routine visit red after a red-free one | 5,522 | 26,740 pairs | 20.7% |
Who inspects restaurants outside New York City
The Department of Health’s food safety page counts more than 90,000 food service establishments in the state. Its Food Protection Program writes the rules (Subpart 14-1 of the State Sanitary Code); county and city health departments and State District Offices issue the permits and do the inspections.
The statewide data covers 55 counties. Its limitations note says it leaves out New York City, Suffolk County and Erie County, which keep their own systems. For those, see our guides to New York City restaurants closed by the Health Department, Suffolk County inspection records and Erie County inspection history.
Smaller counties without their own food program are inspected by a State District Office. In this year’s records the offices covered:
- Canton: St. Lawrence
- Geneva: Ontario, Wayne and Yates
- Glens Falls: Warren and Washington
- Herkimer: Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery and part of Hamilton
- Hornell: Schuyler and Steuben
- Middletown: Sullivan
- Oneonta: Delaware, Greene and Otsego
- Saranac Lake: Essex, Franklin and part of Hamilton
- Watertown: Jefferson and Lewis
How to look up one New York State restaurant
- Open Food Service Establishment: Last Inspection on Health Data NY.
- Filter by County, then search the Facility or Operation Name column. A hotel or college can hold several food operations under one facility name.
- Read four columns: TOTAL # CRITICAL VIOLATIONS, TOTAL #CRIT. NOT CORRECTED, TOTAL # NONCRITICAL VIOLATIONS and the violation item code with its description.
- For earlier visits, open the full inspection history dataset and filter by the row’s NYS Health Operation ID.
- For the report itself, contact the county health department or district office that did the inspection. The dataset keeps only the violation code and a general description; the paper report also lists the food item, its temperature and the correction made.
Some counties publish their own lookup on top of the state data. Nassau County runs a food service inspection search that also shows critical and non-critical counts. Its top violations and results by town are in our Nassau County restaurant inspection results guide.
How to read red and blue violations on a New York report
The state data dictionary labels each violation critical “Red” or non-critical “Blue.” Cattaraugus County’s inspection page gives the plain meaning: red items are the more serious ones with potential to cause foodborne illness, and blue items have little or no such potential.
Read the “not corrected” number first. A red item fixed during the visit (food discarded, a cooler brought back to temperature) still counts in TOTAL # CRITICAL VIOLATIONS, but TOTAL #CRIT. NOT CORRECTED stays at zero. In this year’s restaurant inspections, 99.7% ended with that column at zero.
The Department of Health also says the data was not collected as a restaurant grading system and does not endorse using it as one.
The critical violations New York inspectors cite most
Counted once per inspection, across the 33,459 routine restaurant inspections: Every item code is defined in our guide to New York critical violation codes.
| Item | What the code covers | Inspections | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5C | Potentially hazardous food left at room temperature | 2,357 | 7.0% |
| 5E | Not enough working refrigeration to keep or cool food cold | 1,357 | 4.1% |
| 2C | Cooked or ready food exposed to cross-contamination from raw food | 1,329 | 4.0% |
| 4A | Toxic chemicals labeled, stored or used where they can reach food | 1,260 | 3.8% |
| 5B | Food not cooled fast enough (120°F to 70°F within 2 hours, then down to 45°F) | 1,226 | 3.7% |
| 1H | Food from an unapproved source, or spoiled or adulterated | 1,206 | 3.6% |
| 5A | Cold food held above 45°F | 1,197 | 3.6% |
| 6A | Hot food held below 140°F | 992 | 3.0% |
Five of the eight are temperature items. New York State’s cold-holding line in item 5A is 45°F. New York City’s Health Code and the FDA Food Code use 41°F, so a cooler reading 43°F is a violation in New York City but within the limit upstate.
Red violation rates by county health department
Health departments with at least 400 routine restaurant inspections in the year, sorted by the share with at least one red violation. The last column, “Revisit within 60 days,” is the share of red inspections that have another recorded visit (a re-inspection or the next routine visit) within 60 days.
| Health department | Routine inspections | At least 1 red | 2+ red | Revisit within 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middletown District Office | 485 | 58.1% | 32.0% | 7.1% |
| Oneonta District Office | 623 | 42.1% | 19.1% | 0.4% |
| Monroe County | 2,694 | 40.7% | 25.5% | 97.8% |
| Saranac Lake District Office | 688 | 40.1% | 16.6% | 5.4% |
| Glens Falls District Office | 710 | 39.2% | 16.6% | 0.4% |
| Nassau County | 3,050 | 35.8% | 13.3% | 74.6% |
| Saratoga County | 973 | 35.6% | 14.6% | 3.2% |
| Rockland County | 1,488 | 30.8% | 8.1% | 57.4% |
| Geneva District Office | 901 | 30.5% | 9.8% | 8.4% |
| Hornell District Office | 421 | 29.5% | 10.5% | 24.2% |
| Herkimer District Office | 678 | 27.6% | 10.0% | 5.3% |
| Tompkins County | 421 | 27.1% | 7.6% | 57.9% |
| Orange County | 2,307 | 26.3% | 10.9% | 82.3% |
| Dutchess County | 1,748 | 25.8% | 9.3% | 67.2% |
| Onondaga County | 2,390 | 24.0% | 5.9% | 14.5% |
| Rensselaer County | 435 | 23.7% | 8.7% | 4.9% |
| Oswego County | 430 | 22.6% | 6.3% | 3.1% |
| Watertown District Office | 447 | 21.0% | 6.7% | 5.3% |
| Albany County | 1,359 | 17.7% | 5.6% | 42.9% |
| Ulster County | 1,074 | 16.5% | 4.7% | 91.0% |
| Niagara County | 976 | 16.2% | 4.3% | 86.7% |
| Chautauqua County | 578 | 15.1% | 3.6% | 9.2% |
| Westchester County | 2,767 | 15.0% | 6.3% | 67.1% |
| Putnam County | 414 | 11.6% | 2.4% | 31.3% |
| Broome County | 633 | 8.8% | 1.6% | 30.4% |
| Oneida County | 792 | 6.4% | 2.0% | 19.6% |
The range runs from 6.4% in Oneida County to 58.1% in Sullivan County, inspected by the Middletown District Office. Inside the bigger cities: Rochester 41.2% (1,939 inspections, Monroe County), Syracuse 23.9% (1,176, Onondaga), Albany 18.4% (805) and Yonkers 8.0% (349, Westchester).
Department gaps partly reflect recording habits. The share of inspections with no violation of any kind, red or blue, runs from 4.2% in Rockland County to 61.0% in Oneida, a spread that suggests offices record blue items differently. County detail, including Albany’s posted ratings, is in our Albany County and Dutchess County results.
The follow-up column is the clearest example. Monroe County has a recorded return within 60 days for 97.8% of red inspections, at a median of 14 days. Saratoga County shows 3.2%, and the Glens Falls and Oneonta offices 0.4%. A low share can mean the office logs fewer return visits in this dataset. To confirm a return visit, ask the office that did the inspection. At the other end, Ulster County returned after 91.0% of reds and Orange County after 82.3%.
What usually happens after a red violation
Follow-up visits: across all departments, 46.0% of red routine inspections had another recorded visit within 60 days, at a median of 15 days, and 81.3% of those visits found no red violation.
The more useful signal for a diner is repetition. When a routine inspection found a red violation, the restaurant’s next routine inspection found one again 46.4% of the time (4,738 of 10,211 pairs, October 2024 to September 2026). After a red-free inspection the figure was 20.7%. After an inspection with two or more red violations it was 57.4%. So when you look up a restaurant, compare its last two or three visits rather than the latest one alone.
Of the 113 inspections that ended with a red item still uncorrected, 80 got a later visit (median 23 days); 49 of those were red-free. Our guide to what happens when a restaurant fails an inspection compares follow-up rules in New York City, Chicago, King County and Los Angeles, and how often restaurants are inspected covers visit frequency.
How we counted
- Unit: one inspection, meaning one operation ID, date and inspection type. Eleven duplicate inspection rows were merged.
- Routine inspections are rows typed “Inspection”; “Re-Inspection” rows count only as follow-up visits.
- Restaurant permits are the food service types Restaurant, Food Service Establishment, Restaurant/Catering Operation and Tavern. Schools, camps, day care, caterers, bakeries and institutions are excluded. Some departments file every restaurant under “Food Service Establishment,” so the two labels are combined.
- Violation shares count each red item code once per inspection.
- The dataset lists establishments that are currently operating. Restaurants that closed during the year are missing, so we did not compare this year with earlier years.
- Follow-up means the next record of any type for the same operation ID.
To complain about a restaurant, use the Department of Health complaint page, which routes you to the local health department. For other places, our guide to checking a restaurant’s health score lists lookups by state. New York State Department of Health pages and datasets checked October 25, 2026.