To obtain a Washington County, Maryland food inspection record, start with the Health Department’s Public Information Act Requests page and use its Environmental Health request form. Identify the food facility by name and physical address, add any former name or permit number you know, and give a bounded date range. Send the request to the Environmental Health route shown by the county, not the separate general public-information form and not the septic, well, and perc-test records form.
Washington County Environmental Health publishes the request form, the email wchd.eh@maryland.gov, and the phone number 240-313-3400. The county’s fillable Request for Information form includes a space to describe the records. Ask for the record types you need rather than requesting “everything” about a restaurant.
Build the request around one licensed facility
The county’s Environmental Health page says its Food Protection program covers permanent and temporary food facilities, including restaurants, mobile units, schools, grocery stores, nursing homes, hospitals, and concession stands. Confirm the operation and address before treating a similarly named record as the same facility.
Facility type matters as well as location. COMAR’s food-service-facility definition excludes, for example, a cottage food business and a hotel that serves only a continental breakfast. For an operation in an excluded category, ask Environmental Health which program or custodian, if any, holds the records you need instead of assuming it has the standard restaurant inspection file.
A focused request can identify:
- the present and former facility names;
- the full physical address;
- the permit or license number, if known;
- a start and end date;
- completed inspection reports;
- correction notices, approved compliance schedules, and reinspections; and
- any suspension, cease-operation, appeal, hearing, or reinstatement records for that period.
Keep these categories in the request because they answer different questions. An inspection report records conditions observed on one visit. A correction notice sets an obligation and deadline. A reinspection documents a later agency visit. A suspension or reinstatement is a licensing action.
No anonymous Washington County food-facility results search or public online history start date was verified for this guide. That is an access limitation, not evidence that no portal exists or that a facility has no earlier record. If you need an old inspection, put the date range in the request instead of assuming that an empty website search represents a clean history.
Read “critical item” as Maryland defines it
Maryland’s current COMAR 10.15.03.29 requires the approving authority to document violating conditions on the inspection report and to list critical item violations separately from all other violations. It also requires the completed report to be available for public disclosure. Public disclosure does not necessarily mean the report appears in a searchable online database; Washington County’s Environmental Health request route is the practical path verified here.
The current COMAR definition treats a critical item as a food-safety requirement whose violation calls for immediate correction, stopping some or all processing, or plant closure. Examples in the rule cover sources, contamination controls, ill-worker restrictions, handwashing, temperature control, potable running water, and sewage disposal.
Do not translate those labels into a private score. The current provisions checked for this guide establish critical items and other violations; they do not provide a Washington County consumer letter grade or numeric scoring formula. Preserve the classification printed on the actual report.
A deadline is not proof that correction occurred
Under current COMAR 10.15.03.31, critical item violations require immediate correction. Other violations generally must be corrected within 30 days of inspection or another period set by the approving authority under applicable law. For a temporary food service facility, other violations generally use a 24-hour or authority-set period.
The authority may approve a modified schedule when the operator submits an acceptable written compliance plan and there is no immediate or substantial danger to public health. That schedule is still a plan. It does not show that the work was completed, inspected, or accepted.
When a report lists a correction date, seek the next record tied to that finding. The site’s reinspection follow-up guide can help organize dates, but Maryland’s labels and the county’s records control the conclusion.
| Record | What it can establish | What it does not establish by itself |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection report | Conditions and classifications observed on that date | Later correction or current conditions |
| Correction notice or schedule | Required action and the agency-set timeline | Completed or verified correction |
| Reinspection report | What the authority found on the return visit | Reinstatement unless the record says so |
| Suspension or cease-operation notice | A dated order to stop operating | Later permission to reopen |
| Reinstatement decision | The agency’s later licensing decision | Conditions after that decision date |
Closure, reinspection, and reopening are separate steps
Current COMAR 10.15.03.35 provides for summary suspension and immediate cessation when an immediate and substantial public-health danger requires emergency action. It also requires the authority to suspend or revoke a license when the operator fails to make the specified corrections or comply with an approved schedule.
After a food facility has been ordered to cease operations, it may not resume until an approving-authority reinspection shows that the conditions responsible for the shutdown no longer exist. An operator may submit a written request describing the corrections and asking for reinspection and reinstatement. Filing that request is not the same as receiving reinstatement.
For a closure sequence, request and arrange these records by date: the inspection and findings, the suspension or cease-operation notice, the operator’s correction or reinspection request, the authority’s reinspection, and the reinstatement decision. The closure and permit-suspension guide explains why a past closure and present authority to operate remain separate questions.
Keep an appeal apart from permission to reopen
Washington County hosts a 2022 food-service appeal handout covering several kinds of decisions, including license denial, proposed suspension or revocation, abatement orders, and summary suspension. Use it to recognize that an appeal creates a separate administrative record. For the controlling deadline and submission instructions, follow the actual dated order and current agency directions for that case.
An appeal filing alone does not show that the order was stayed or the license reinstated. Keep the inspection, order, appeal request, hearing record, decision, reinspection, and reinstatement as separate documents. If one is missing, describe the gap rather than inferring the outcome.
Official county and current Maryland regulatory sources were checked September 27, 2026. No records request was submitted and no real facility finding or operating status was reviewed.