Start a Delaware County, Pennsylvania restaurant inspection search with three facts: the facility’s municipality, the inspection date, and the agency that issued the food permit. The county’s Environmental Health page separates records after August 10, 2022 from an older Pennsylvania-and-county route. A court dispute involving 13 municipalities makes the current permit issuer just as important as the date.
For a county-administered record, use the Delaware County Health Department’s Restaurant Inspection Reports page to reach the public inspection portal. The portal can lead from a dated inspection row to its violation narratives. It does not replace a custody check, and its count columns are not a verified grading formula.
Confirm the regulator before reading an empty result
The county Food Protection Program covers food-service and retail operations such as restaurants, supermarkets, school cafeterias, and retail food facilities. That broad scope means a portal row is not automatically a conventional restaurant.
Municipal authority needs a second check. Delaware County’s Open Records page identifies 13 municipalities affected by a February 28, 2024 court order: Aston, Clifton Heights, Darby Township, Eddystone, Lower Chichester, Marple, Middletown, Ridley Park, Ridley Township, Springfield, Thornbury, Tinicum, and Upper Chichester.
The county’s later Commonwealth Court statement says a May 2025 decision addressed seven of those municipalities and that the county would continue outreach to all 13. That statement does not establish the final September 2026 inspection custodian for every municipality on the list.
Before interpreting a missing row, ask DCHD which agency issued the permit and inspected that facility on the date you need. If a municipality or another local body held the record, use that custodian.
Choose the current or older record route by date
The Environmental Health page directs readers to:
- DCHD records after August 10, 2022: use the county inspection-report portal when DCHD administered the facility.
- Records through August 10, 2022: follow the linked Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and DCHD route, then confirm which agency holds the requested inspection.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Retail Food Inspection Reports page explains that Pennsylvania has state, county, and selected local inspection jurisdictions. Its route helps identify a regulator; it does not promise one complete statewide archive for every Delaware County facility.
An owner, name, or permit change can split records further. Match the address, municipality, establishment number, permit issuer, and date before combining rows into one history.
Search by establishment number and date
The public portal exposes these filters:
- Establishment Name Containing;
- Establishment Number Containing;
- Address Containing;
- City Containing;
- ZIP Code Containing;
- Establishment Type;
- Inspection Date Range From and To;
- Inspection Type: All, Complaint, Follow Up, Opening, or Routine; and
- a checkbox to show all Routine type inspections.
No filtered facility query was submitted for this guide. Use the most stable value you have, preferably the establishment number or complete address. Add a bounded date range and inspection type only after confirming that you are in the correct regulator’s system.
The result list can show the inspection date, FS number, name, address, establishment type, inspection type, EHS, repeat count, Risk Factor Interventions count, and Non-Compliant Good Retail Practices count. These columns help select the right dated event. They do not by themselves explain the underlying observations or agency action.
Open Details before interpreting the counts
The portal provides separate Full Report and Details actions. The verified Details view showed facility identity, inspection date, comments, violation code, description, and violation comments. Those comments can include code markers such as (P) or (Pf), the inspector’s observation, and corrective-action text. A repeated code can carry more than one observation, so preserve each comments entry with its dated report.
The Full Report action was not opened during the source check, so this guide does not claim its file format or fields. The portal’s Rules popup also did not supply readable definitions during review. Use Details for the observation-level record that was verified, and keep the list counts as navigation aids.
| Portal item | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Repeat count | A count shown for the dated inspection; open Details to identify the cited item |
| Risk Factor Interventions count | A portal summary column, not a numeric safety grade |
| Non-Compliant Good Retail Practices count | Another dated summary column; read the underlying violation comments |
The county’s Food Safety Resources page links the FDA 2022 Food Code. Its model inspection framework separates illness risk factors and preventive controls from Good Retail Practices, which address everyday operating and sanitation conditions. For example, temperature control is an illness-risk concern; maintaining cleanable equipment belongs to basic operating conditions. Both matter. These concepts help interpret the headings, but do not establish how DCHD calculates each portal count.
Within a cited code provision, P means Priority: it directly controls an illness or injury hazard. Pf means Priority Foundation: it supports implementation of those controls. Core covers the remaining general sanitation, operation, or maintenance provisions. These are code categories, not additional portal columns or point values. Read the cited provision and correction note together; the category alone does not establish the deadline in a particular notice.
The site’s food inspection report guide can help keep the inspection date, type, code, description, observation, and corrective action in separate fields.
Separate routine correction, follow-up, and emergency action
Delaware County’s General Provisions chapter distinguishes ordinary notices from emergency orders. Section 100.5 says a notice of violation states the remedy and a reasonable compliance time. Section 100.6 addresses a written emergency order that requires immediate compliance during a public health emergency.
No single follow-up deadline was verified for every violation. Read the actual notice and report for its required timing. A corrective action in one Details view does not establish that the agency verified the correction later. A Follow Up row is a separate dated event and should be read alongside the earlier inspection.
The county’s Food Protection chapter places covered food facilities in the department’s program and adopts the referenced Pennsylvania and FDA standards. It does not turn the three portal count columns into a county grade.
Request closure and authorization-to-resume records separately
The public schema verified for this guide did not establish a closure-status or reopening-status field. If the question is whether operations were ordered to stop or later allowed to resume, request the actual documents rather than inferring the answer from a count, Details comment, or Follow Up label.
Delaware County’s Open Records page links its request route and states eligibility requirements, including United States residency and a non-anonymous mailing address. No request was submitted. A focused request can identify:
- facility name, address, municipality, and establishment number;
- the permit issuer and permit holder, if known;
- a bounded inspection date range;
- routine, complaint, opening, and follow-up reports;
- violation notices and documented corrections;
- emergency or closure orders; and
- the agency decision authorizing operations to resume.
Ask the county to identify the correct municipal or state custodian if DCHD does not hold the record. The site’s closure and permit-suspension guide can help preserve the order, correction record, follow-up, and resume-operation decision as separate evidence.
Example: one address across the 2022 boundary
Suppose a reader needs a 2021 routine inspection and a 2025 follow-up for the same address. First confirm the municipality and ask which agency issued the permit in each period. Use the Pennsylvania-and-county older route for the 2021 record. Use the DCHD portal for the 2025 record only if DCHD administered that facility then.
In the portal, match the FS number, address, establishment type, inspection date, and inspection type. Open Details for the later event and save its violation comments. Request the earlier report and any closure or authorization-to-resume record from the agency that held it.
Do not merge the two records solely by business name. The custodian, permit holder, or establishment number may have changed. A dated inspection or follow-up is not a guarantee of current food safety.
Sources were checked September 27, 2026.