On a New York State restaurant inspection outside New York City, each violation is listed by an item code from the State Sanitary Code inspection form. Codes in groups 1 through 7 (1A to 7G) are critical, or “red,” violations: food source, contamination, sick or careless workers, chemicals, and food temperatures. Codes 8 through 16 are noncritical, or “blue.” The most common red code, 5C (food left at room temperature), turned up in 7.0% of the 33,459 routine restaurant inspections between October 2025 and September 2026.
The code definitions below come from the item descriptions in the New York State Department of Health dataset Food Service Establishment Inspections: Beginning 2005, which follow Subpart 14-1 of the State Sanitary Code. The rates are our counts from that dataset (rows updated October 22, 2026), covering every county except New York City, Erie and Suffolk, which publish their records separately.
| Code group | What it covers | Share of red inspections that included it |
|---|---|---|
| 5, 6, 7 | Cold holding, hot holding, cooling, cooking and reheating temperatures | 65.9% |
| 1 | Food and water source, spoiled food, damaged cans, shellfish tags | 21.9% |
| 2 | Cross-contamination and missing thermometers | 21.8% |
| 4 | Toxic chemicals and sewage | 15.0% |
| 3 | Ill workers, handwashing, bare-hand contact | 5.1% |
A red inspection can include more than one group, so the shares add to more than 100%. Of the 9,056 inspections with a red, 60.9% had exactly one.
The red codes New York inspectors write most, and where
| Code | What the inspector found | Statewide | Highest county |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5C | Potentially hazardous food stored at room temperature | 7.0% | Monroe 20.3% |
| 5E | Not enough working refrigeration to keep food at or below 45°F | 4.0% | Sullivan 8.5% |
| 2C | Cooked or prepared food exposed to raw food | 4.0% | Genesee 10.2% |
| 4A | Chemicals labeled, stored or used where they can get into food | 3.8% | Sullivan 19.1% |
| 5B | Food cooled too slowly: 120°F to 70°F in 2 hours, then 70°F to 45°F in 4 hours | 3.7% | Essex 14.4% |
| 1H | Food from an unapproved source, spoiled or adulterated | 3.6% | Saratoga 12.0% |
| 5A | Cold food above 45°F (smoked fish above 38°F) | 3.6% | Sullivan 13.4% |
| 6A | Hot food below 140°F | 3.0% | Essex 9.7% |
| 2E | No accurate thermometer available or used | 1.9% | Sullivan 8.3% |
| 1D | Leaking, badly dented, rusty or swollen cans | 1.3% | Rensselaer 7.4% |
Rates are shares of routine restaurant inspections. “Highest county” is among the 28 counties with at least 300 routine inspections. The same code can be rare in one county and common in the next: Broome inspectors cited 5C in 0.2% of inspections and 4A in none, while Sullivan cited 4A in 19.1%. Orange County cited 4A in 9.5%, and Schenectady County cited damaged cans (1D) in 14.5%. That spread may reflect how each county’s inspectors write reports as much as the restaurants themselves, so compare a restaurant with others in the same county.
The temperatures behind the 5, 6 and 7 codes
- 5A cold holding: 45°F or below; 38°F or below for smoked fish.
- 6A hot holding: 140°F or above.
- 5B cooling: from 120°F to 70°F within two hours, then to 45°F within four more.
- 7A poultry and stuffings: cooked to 165°F.
- 7B pork: 150°F. 7D ground meat: 158°F unless the customer asks otherwise. 7C shell eggs: 145°F unless the customer asks otherwise.
- 7F reheating: precooked food back to 165°F within two hours. 7G: commercially precooked food to 140°F within two hours.
Cooking-temperature codes are rare on reports, likely because an inspector has to see the food being cooked. 7F, the most common, appeared in 0.7% of inspections; 7A, 7B, 7C and 7D together appeared 41 times in the year.
Which red codes get a return visit, and which come back
| Code | Inspections citing it | Return visit within 60 days | Same code at next routine inspection |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5C room temperature | 2,355 | 58.6% | 29.3% |
| 5B slow cooling | 1,222 | 51.2% | 24.6% |
| 5A cold holding | 1,194 | 46.6% | 23.6% |
| 6A hot holding | 992 | 45.9% | 17.9% |
| 2C cross-contamination | 1,329 | 38.9% | 16.5% |
| 5E refrigeration | 1,355 | 58.4% | 16.4% |
| 1H unapproved or spoiled food | 1,206 | 44.6% | 16.3% |
| 4A chemicals | 1,260 | 41.3% | 15.8% |
| 3B handwashing after contamination | 160 | 74.4% | 12.0% |
| 2E thermometer | 636 | 47.3% | 10.1% |
| 1D damaged cans | 438 | 28.8% | 4.5% |
Temperature codes repeat most often. A restaurant cited for 5C had the same code at its next routine inspection 29.3% of the time; damaged cans (1D) came back 4.5% of the time. Handwashing failures (3B) drew the most return visits, 74.4%.
Most red violations are fixed on the spot, by throwing out or chilling the food or moving the chemical. Only 113 of the 33,459 inspections ended with a red still uncorrected, and 78 of those 113 included a 2E citation. The likely reason is practical: a restaurant without a thermometer has to buy one, so the fix comes after the visit.
Blue codes that sound serious
Some blue items name things diners worry about most. 14A, insects or rodents present, is a noncritical item; it appeared in 10.3% of routine inspections. 14B, openings and harborage that let pests in, appeared in 7.6%. 12E, handwashing sinks blocked, dirty or unstocked, appeared in 17.6%. A blue item still has to be fixed by a date the inspector sets, and a long blue list can point to a kitchen that isn’t kept up. The most common blue items statewide were 8A food protection (26.5%), 15A floors, walls and ceilings (26.2%) and 10B equipment design or upkeep (23.2%).
How to see the codes for one restaurant
- In the state lookup Food Service Establishment: Last Inspection, filter by county and search the restaurant’s name.
- The Violation Items column lists the codes, for example “5C; 8A; 15A”. Match each against the tables above.
- For earlier visits, open the full history dataset linked above and filter on the facility code; each code is its own row there, with the critical or noncritical label and the item description.
County-by-county rates for the main codes are in our results for Monroe, Onondaga, Westchester, Nassau, Albany, Dutchess and Rockland, and the statewide overview is in New York State restaurant inspection results by county. New York City uses its own codes and letter grades; see New York City restaurants closed by the Health Department.
How we counted
The code rates use statewide routine inspections (type “Inspection”) of permits described as Restaurant, Restaurant/Catering Operation, Tavern or Food Service Establishment, dated October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, one per facility per date, and counted each code once per inspection. “Return visit” is any later inspection of the same facility within 60 days; “same code at next routine inspection” counts only cases with a later routine inspection in the data. The dataset lists active facilities, so restaurants that closed during the year drop out.
New York State Department of Health data checked October 25, 2026.