What the health inspector found at your fast food chain.
Pick a chain and see how its restaurants did on routine health inspections, next to every other restaurant in the same city or state. Every number comes from that government’s own records.
Example
McDonald's, place by place
Under the local rate in nine of 10 places. A bar to the left of the tall line means fewer inspections with a problem than is normal there. What counts as a problem differs from place to place.
The first four of 10 places.
Pick a chain
All chain pagesEach box is one place. A filled box means that chain’s restaurants had a problem on inspection less often than restaurants there in general.
- Under the local rate
- Too close to call
- Over the local rate
- Too few inspections to say
Most boxes are filled. Of 141 comparisons between a chain and the place it is in, 115 came in under the local rate, 24 were too close to call and two came in over.
That is not only good management. A coffee counter handles far less raw food than a kitchen that fries chicken, so part of the gap is the menu.
Or start with a place
All placesEvery government inspects its own way, so each place counts a different thing. Its page shows every chain there against the local rate.
Florida
Counts routine inspections that recorded at least one high-priority violation.
All restaurants: 58.2% of 267,294
30 chains charted. Jul 2023 to Sep 20, 2026. Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
New York City
Counts routine inspections that scored 14 or more points, so did not earn an A on the first visit.
All restaurants: 40.2% of 44,261
11 chains charted. Jan 2023 to Sep 17, 2026. NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
New York State
Counts routine inspections that recorded at least one critical (red) violation.
Every county except New York City's five, Suffolk and Erie, which run their own inspection systems and are not in the state's file.
All food service establishments: 25.1% of 115,627
18 chains charted. Jan 2023 to Sep 11, 2026. New York State Department of Health
Chicago
Counts routine inspections that ended in a Fail.
All restaurants: 24.4% of 38,828
14 chains charted. Jan 2019 to Sep 16, 2026. Chicago Department of Public Health
Austin
Counts routine inspections that scored under 90, below the city's top category.
All food establishments: 33.6% of 20,455
7 chains charted. Sep 2023 to Aug 25, 2026. Austin Public Health
Seattle and King County
Counts routine inspections that received an Unsatisfactory result, meaning a red critical violation was noted.
All food service establishments: 35.6% of 37,914
11 chains charted. Jan 2023 to Sep 1, 2026. Public Health - Seattle & King County
Las Vegas and Clark County
Counts routine inspections that recorded at least one 5-demerit violation, the district's most serious class.
All of Clark County, including Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mesquite, Laughlin and the Strip, which the health district inspects as one jurisdiction.
All restaurants: 44.8% of 25,251
15 chains charted. Sep 2023 to Sep 19, 2026. Southern Nevada Health District
Louisville
Counts routine inspections that ended in a C grade, meaning the restaurant failed the inspection and a follow-up visit was required.
All of Jefferson County, which Louisville Metro's health department inspects as one jurisdiction.
All food service establishments: 5.0% of 19,067
13 chains charted. Sep 2021 to Sep 18, 2026. Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness
Raleigh and Wake County
Counts routine inspections that marked at least one item out of compliance in the state form's section on foodborne illness risk factors.
All of Wake County, North Carolina, including Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest and Garner, which the county inspects as one jurisdiction.
All restaurants and food stands: 83.1% of 21,303
13 chains charted. Oct 2021 to Sep 18, 2026. Wake County Environmental Services
Sacramento County
Counts routine inspections that ended in a yellow or red placard, meaning two or more major violations or a closure.
All of Sacramento County, including the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Folsom and Rancho Cordova, which the county inspects as one jurisdiction.
All restaurants and food preparation establishments: 7.9% of 16,262
9 chains charted. Sep 2023 to Sep 18, 2026. Sacramento County Environmental Management Department
Two chains, head to head
Pick any two and see them side by side in every place where both have enough inspections. Each place is decided on its own; there is no combined score.
Before you read too much into it
- It does not say which place is cleaner. Each place counts a different thing, so a Florida figure and a Chicago figure can’t be set against each other. Compare chains within a place, never numbers across places.
- It says nothing about one restaurant. A figure describes that chain’s locations in that place over those years. It is not a statement about the brand everywhere, and it is not a warning about the one near you.
- Only routine visits count. Inspectors return to restaurants that already had a problem, so counting follow-up and complaint visits would stack the numbers.
How each place inspects
All guides- What a Failed Food Inspection in Chicago Actually Means
- Why an A in the Window Is Not an A on the First Visit
- What a High-Priority Violation Means in Florida
- New York State's Red Violations, and Why They Are Not a Grade
- How Las Vegas Demerits Turn Into the Grade on the Door
- What an Unsatisfactory Inspection Means in King County
- Austin Publishes the Score but Not the Scoring
- A Score of 95 and a Grade of C: How Louisville Inspections Work
- An A on the Door and a Risk Factor on the Report
- What Sacramento's Green, Yellow and Red Placards Actually Say
- How to Compare Two Fast Food Chains Without Fooling Yourself
10 places so far. The United States has no national inspection database, and a place is added when its government publishes every routine inspection, keeps the file current and allows reuse. Exactly what is counted, and how the ranges are worked out, is on the methodology page; the rules that match restaurant names to chains are published too.
New York State data: The analyses, interpretations and conclusions drawn from New York State data on this site were reached by FastFoodFact and not by the New York State Department of Health. The department states that this data was not collected for use as a restaurant grading system and does not support or endorse such a use; the figures here describe groups of inspections and are not a grade of any restaurant.
Chicago data: This site provides applications using data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago. The City of Chicago makes no claims as to the content, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the data provided at this site. The data provided at this site is subject to change at any time. It is understood that the data provided at this site is being used at one’s own risk.
Raleigh and Wake County data: Contains data from Wake County Government's open data portal, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). FastFoodFact grouped the county's inspection records by chain and counted them; the county did not make or review these figures. Wake County states that it shall not be held liable for any errors in these data, and that primary sources must be consulted for verification.
These are public records, summarized. They are not a safety rating of any restaurant and not advice about where to eat.