Grading Criteria For Food Inspection Demerits

Inspections are scored on a demerit system. The fewer the violations, the lower the demerit accumulation, with zero being a perfect score. The grading criteria is as follows:

0 – 3	Excellent
4 -10	Good
11-19	Satisfactory
20-29	Poor
30 & Above	Failing

It is important to remember when looking at the overall score the type of operation that is being conducted at that facility. A full-service restaurant that prepares meals from scratch is involved in much more complex operations and processing than is a convenience store that sells only pre-packaged food items. Also, any inspection is a "snapshot" of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have more or fewer violations than noted at the time and date the inspection was made and may not be representative of the overall, long-term cleanliness of an establishment. It is also important to keep in mind that at the time of the inspection, violations observed are recorded on the inspection form but are often corrected on the spot prior to the health inspector’s leaving the establishment.

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