Look up a state / IL
Restaurant inspections in Illinois
Who inspects, where the record lives, what the public actually sees, and whether it has to be posted on the door. Every line below links to the government source it came from.
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01
Who inspects
Delegated to certified local health departments; municipalities in counties over 2,000,000 (i.e., Chicago) must regulate and inspect retail food establishments themselves Agency page
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02
What the public sees
A narrative violation list; scores/grades were explicitly discontinued by local health departments, with violations categorized as Priority, Priority Foundation, and Core, marked IN/OUT/N/A/N/O. Chicago's own dataset reports a result of Pass, Pass w/ Conditions, or Fail. Source
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03
Posting the result
Posting rule not confirmed. Completed inspection reports are public documents available on request, per Will County Health Department. Rule
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04
Food code in force
2022 FDA Food Code. The FDA Food Code is a model, not a federal mandate — each state decides which edition to adopt and how far to amend it.
| Where to search | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Chicago Health Inspection web app | City |
| McHenry County food facility inspection reports | County |
- City of Chicago Food Inspections Last updated 2026-07-07
If you run the restaurant
The record is public either way. The useful move is to read it before a customer does.
Pull your own record
Search yourself in the lookup above and read every line of the last three reports. Repeat violations are what escalate.
Work the ten risk factors
Most citations trace back to the same ten practices the FDA measures nationally. Run the ten-minute self-check.
Fix, document, re-inspect
Dated photos and a written correction log are what a re-inspection rewards. What to do after a bad inspection.
Improved a bad record in Illinois?
Our recognition program is for recovery, not for perfection. Nominations for the inaugural class are open.