What health inspectors actually look for
By Vimal Bhaya, Founder and Lead Systems Architect · Last reviewed 25 October 2026
This is a continuation of Temperature logs and inspections, an 8-part tutorial. You are on part 3 of 8.
Inspectors spend most of their time on the things that make people sick. On the FDA's model report, items 1 to 29 are these risk factors. Seven of them are about time and temperature: cooking, reheating, cooling, hot and cold holding, date marks, and time used in place of temperature.
For coolers, the inspector puts a thermometer in your food, then reads your log to see whether that number is normal for you. Cold holding is the item US restaurants miss most: FDA found it out of compliance at least once in 62% of fast food and 80% of full-service restaurants.
The FDA inspection report has two halves: risk factors and good retail practices
Many states use the FDA's model inspection report, or one close to it. It has 55 items. Items 1 to 29 are the foodborne illness risk factors: the things that make people sick. Items 30 to 55 are good retail practices: cleaning, storage, equipment and the building.
Each violation also carries a tag, priority, priority foundation or core, that sets how fast it has to be fixed. The tags are explained further down.
Seven of the risk-factor items are about time and temperature
| Item | What the inspector checks |
|---|---|
| 1 | Person in charge present, demonstrates knowledge, and performs duties |
| 2 | Certified food protection manager |
| 18 | Proper cooking time and temperatures |
| 19 | Proper reheating procedures for hot holding |
| 20 | Proper cooling time and temperatures |
| 21 | Proper hot holding temperatures |
| 22 | Proper cold holding temperatures |
| 23 | Proper date marking and disposition |
| 24 | Time as a public health control: procedures and records |
| 36 | Thermometers provided and accurate (a good retail practice) |
Cold holding is the item US restaurants miss most often
FDA sent trained staff into hundreds of US restaurants in 2017 and 2018. Cold holding was out of compliance at least once in most of them.
| Item | Fast food | Full-service |
|---|---|---|
| Cold holding, TCS food at 41°F (5°C) or colder | 62.2% | 79.8% |
| Hot holding, TCS food at 135°F (57°C) or hotter | 18.5% | 26.3% |
In full-service restaurants, no item in the whole study was missed more often. In fast food it came second. FDA also found that kitchens with a food safety system in place, meaning written steps, training and checks, kept the risk factors under control best.
The inspector measures the food, not just the air
The inspector's guide for item 22 says cold holding is marked on real food temperatures, taken with a checked thermometer. The inspector also asks the person in charge whether a food is cooling, held on time instead of temperature, or not TCS food at all.
One TCS food out of temperature can put the item out. So the number on the cooler display is not the answer. The food is. See cold holding, hot holding and the danger zone.
The person in charge has to answer questions about temperatures
Item 1 checks that the person in charge knows the job. They can show it three ways: no priority violations on the day, a food protection manager certificate, or right answers to the inspector's questions.
The Food Code lists what those questions cover. One of them is the times and temperatures for cold storage, hot holding, cooling and reheating. The numbers to know are in preparing for a health inspection.
A temperature log is read for patterns, not for one number
The Food Code gives the inspector access to your records. When they read a temperature log, these are the questions it answers:
- Does the log's normal match what they just measured? A log that always says 36°F (2°C) next to food that probes at 45°F (7°C) is a problem on its own.
- Were the readings really taken at the times shown? Rows written left to right in one go, or the same number at every check, are the signs. See pencil whipping.
- Is there an action next to every bad reading? A high number with nothing beside it looks ignored.
- Is cooling on record? Cooling is a priority item, and hard to prove after the fact.
Here is what a bad log looks like. These number strips come from a real kitchen's paper log. Read for patterns, they look written to fill the boxes, not taken at the times shown.
The full story of this log, and the signs to look for in your own, is in pencil whipping.
One restaurant worker said what their health department cares about most, after overall temperature:
"Warm food needs to be cooled to under 40F in a certain time. Can you provide equipment that shows that has occurred? This is the main concern [after overall temperature] for my health department."
r/KitchenConfidential
Priority, priority foundation and core come from the Food Code, not from the inspector
Every violation on the report is tagged by how directly it can make someone sick. The tag is not the inspector's opinion. Each paragraph of the Food Code carries its tag in the code itself: P for priority, Pf for priority foundation, and no mark for core. The inspector writes down the rule you broke, and its tag comes with it.
- Priority (P). A rule that controls a hazard directly, with a number you can measure, "such as cooking, reheating, cooling, and handwashing". Cold holding at 41°F (5°C) is a priority item.
- Priority foundation (Pf). A rule that makes a priority item possible: staff training, the right equipment, HACCP plans and records.
- Core. Everything else, such as general cleaning, equipment upkeep and the building.
Some states print the tags on the form. Texas's report lists priority items first, as items 1 to 20, then priority foundation items 21 to 33, then core items from 34. On it, cold holding is a priority item, and an accurate food thermometer, or a thermometer in the warmest part of each cooler, is a priority foundation item.
Other places use their own names for the same idea. New York City has public health hazards, critical and general violations. Santa Clara County, California, has major and minor violations. All the names are side by side in critical vs minor infractions, and what happens when they are not fixed is in preparing for a health inspection.
Priority items are fixed on the spot or within 72 hours
Under the model Food Code, as Virginia adopted it, priority and priority foundation items are corrected at the time of the inspection. If that is not possible, priority items get up to 72 hours and priority foundation items up to 10 calendar days. Core items get up to 90 calendar days.
The inspector leaves a copy of the report. How often they come depends on where you are. The model Food Code says at least once every 6 months, with longer gaps allowed on a risk-based plan. Cincinnati, for example, inspects at least once a year, without warning. It says the inspector "may visit anytime the restaurant is operating."
Want a log that always matches what the inspector finds?
TemperatureWise prints your daily cooler and freezer log for you. Each box gets a daily sheet with the reading at each check time, the highest reading since the last check, and the time spent above 41°F (5°C). It is filled from readings taken at least every 15 minutes, day and night, so nobody has to remember the check and nobody can make up a number.
- 96 readings a day per box, not 3 or 4 written by hand. The nights and the weekends are on the record too.
- A warm box gets fixed before the inspector finds it. When a box drifts out of its normal pattern, TemperatureWise emails, then texts and calls up to 3 people per sensor until someone answers.
- Paper or a screen, whichever the inspector wants. The sheet follows the honest method: the reading nearest each check and the highest in between, never an average. Why that matters, on a real night of readings, is in preparing for a health inspection. TemperatureWise keeps every reading indefinitely, and exports it too.
The inspector will still probe the food. TemperatureWise measures the air where the sensor sits, or a glycol buffer bottle (an optional add-on) that tracks the food more closely. It does not cover cooking, cooling or hot holding.