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This is a Non-Federal dataset covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. See Terms

Food Inspections

Metadata Updated: March 29, 2026

The Wake County health department inspects food service facilities throughout Wake County. The department permits and inspects these facilities, and responds to citizen complaints. In the event of disease outbreak, the department investigates to determine the source of the infection, and prevent further illness.

This dataset captures the restaurants that are inspected.  The data set is geocoded based on address with approximately 85% of the locations having a valid geo-location. 

You can find out additional information about our restaurant inspections on our website:  Food Safety and Sanitation

This table captures all Wake County sanitation inspections from September 20, 2012 to Present.

This table is part of a set of data that combined will give you a picture of all restaurant inspections.  Those three tables are:

1.     Restaurants: This table captures all active facilities where Wake County performs sanitations inspections.  Facilities that are closed are removed from all three files in this dataset.  Per NC State regulations, facilities that have a change in ownership are considered closed and the restaurant re-opens under a new permit, even if there is not a change in the name of the restaurant.

2.     Food Inspections: This table captures all Wake County performs sanitations inspections at active restaurants since September 20, 2012

3.     Food Inspection Violations: This table captures all violations identified during specific Wake County sanitations inspections at active restaurants since September 20, 2012.  It reports the results in code violations and according to CDC Risk Factors.  You can find additional information about the CDC Risk Factors on the FDA website: Retail Risk Factor Study

 

The tables can be connected through the HSISID field. 

The frequency of facility inspections fall under the following rules:

Inspected once per year:

Risk Category I applies to food service establishments that prepare only non-potentially hazardous foods.

Inspected twice per year:

Risk Category II applies to food service establishments that cook and cool no more than two potentially hazardous foods. Potentially hazardous raw ingredients shall be received in a ready-to-cook form.

Inspected three times per year

Risk Category III applies to food service establishments that cook and cool no more than three potentially hazardous foods.

Inspected four times per year

Risk Category IV applies to food service establishments that cook and cool an unlimited number of potentially hazardous foods. This category also includes those facilities using specialized processes or serving a highly susceptible population.


 

Field

Description

HSISID

State code identifying the restaurant (also the primary key to identify the restaurant)

Score

Final score for this inspection

Date

Date of inspection

Description

General comments not that may or may not be tied to a inspection question

Type

Type of inspection: Inspection, Re-inspection, Visit

PermitID

Deprecated. No longer provided.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. Non-Federal: This dataset is covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. See Terms License: Creative Commons Attribution

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date February 22, 2026
Metadata Updated Date March 29, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from Wake County Open Data Json Harvest Source

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date February 22, 2026
Metadata Updated Date March 29, 2026
Publisher Wake County
Maintainer
Identifier https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=ebe3ae7f76954fad81411612d7c4fb17&sublayer=1
Data First Published 2016-08-12T18:31:22.000Z
Data Last Modified 2026-03-27T04:30:16.000Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 8175ffbc-f142-4fa3-a512-c89dbbc0452b
Harvest Source Id 8ed9cb64-3f9c-4c51-a89f-7ec8140833a3
Harvest Source Title Wake County Open Data Json Harvest Source
Homepage URL https://data-wake.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/Wake::food-inspections
License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -78.9746,35.5378,-78.2667,36.0504
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0061baf316fcbfbcd30bc2825d110a292c58cace1cfcdad80a06d3a2de7eb21e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -78.9746, 35.5378, -78.9746, 36.0504, -78.2667, 36.0504, -78.2667, 35.5378, -78.9746, 35.5378}

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