Health Agency | Environmental Health

Any operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food intended for human consumption to the general public. These facilities include but are not limited to restaurants, bars, markets/grocery stores, and school cafeterias.

Please note that the Award of Excellence does not apply to Farmers' Markets and inspection results for this facility type are not posted.  Also, mobile food operators and cottage food operators are not mapped in EatSafeSLO but the inspection results can be viewed in the Inspection Results Database.

A food facility health inspection is an evaluation of food preparation and food employee practices, facility condition, food storage and many other factors that contribute to the overall safety of the food products being sold or dispensed for consumption to the public.

The purpose of a health inspection report is to document the health inspection findings and to provide an overall summary of the health inspection. The report is provided to the facility owner or operator following a health inspection.

Health inspection reports are public record and are required to be maintained onsite at the facility and must be made available upon request at any time. However it is not required that health inspection reports be conspicuously posted.

The County of San Luis Obispo Environmental Health Services food facility health inspection report contains at minimum the following information:

• The date and time of the health inspection,
• The name and address of the food facility,
• The permit holder's name,
• The health permit expiration date and health permit fee payment status,
• The type of food facility (restaurant, retail market, etc.),
• The type of health inspection (regular inspection (routine) or follow up inspection (reinspection)),
• The score of the health inspection,
• The food safety certified manager,
• A list, if applicable, of all violations observed during the health inspection and an overall summary of the health inspection,
• The name, title, and signature of the person in charge accepting the report,
• A summary of corresponding laws and regulations taken from the California Retail Food Code,
• If applicable, an award of excellence may also be issued with the report. View the Award of Excellence web page for more information.

There are several types of health inspections which get posted on this site: a regular, or routine inspection; a follow up inspection, or reinspection; change of ownership inspections; and opening inspections for initial health permit approval.

Regular health inspections are routine unannounced health inspections.

Follow up inspections, or reinspections, are conducted only when the health inspector has determined during a regular health inspection that a follow up inspection is required to verify compliance with documented California Retail Food Code violations noted during the regular health inspection.

It is the policy of the County of San Luis Obispo Environmental Health Services Division to not present a health inspection score as a letter restaurant grade or restaurant rating, but rather as an overall restaurant score which is based on a maximum of 100 points scoring system.

Points are deducted based on observations of violations occurring within, or in conjunction with, the food facility at the time of the health inspection. More points are deducted for violations that may result in a higher food safety risk if they are not corrected. These can include such things as non-compliance with hand washing, food temperatures, surface sanitization, safe food sources, and employee health.

Fewer points are deducted for minor violations that are usually associated with the condition of the facility, the equipment, and less risky food handling violations.

Additional points are deducted if a violation is determined to be a repeat violation which either wasn't corrected following the last inspection, or was corrected but is found to be in violation again. 

A Food Facility health inspection may result in closure if any violation is observed which is found to create an imminent health hazard which cannot be corrected during the inspection. Common examples include, but are not limited to:

• Surfacing or inability to properly discharge liquid waste (sewage)
• Vermin infestation (rodents, cockroaches, etc.)
• Power or water outages
• Lack of ability to properly clean and sanitize food contact utensils or equipment
• Operation without a valid health permit to operate

Only the most recent health inspection results for facilities that occurred over the last two (2) years are displayed on this website. If the facility recently underwent an ownership change, then only the most recent inspection results following the ownership change and which apply to the new owner are displayed.

Please contact us at Environmental Health for program-related questions or to submit a complaint.

Environmental Health Food Safety Program

Inspection Results Database (without map app)

SafeSLO and other GIS Web Apps