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Restaurant inspections in Maryland

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.

Violation list only Run county by county Posting rule varies locally
  • 01

    Who inspects

    Delegated to Maryland's local (county / Baltimore City) health departments; the Maryland Department of Health's Office of Food Protection directs the public to contact a local health department food program Agency page

  • 02

    What the public sees

    A narrative violation list; state regulation requires critical item violations to be documented separately and requires public disclosure of inspection results, but there is no statewide grade or score. Format varies by locality. Source

  • 03

    Posting the result

    Posting rule varies locally. COMAR requires public disclosure of inspection results but not a posted grade; no statewide customer-facing grade/placard posting requirement was confirmed. Rule

  • 04

    Food code in force

    Not confirmed. The FDA Food Code is a model, not a federal mandate — each state decides which edition to adopt and how far to amend it.

Worth knowing. Maryland does not adopt the FDA Food Code — it operates under COMAR 10.15.03 instead. Baltimore City's lookup has moved to a new address; the old one forwards.
Official inspection lookups — Maryland
Where to searchCoverage
Montgomery County Food Inspection datasetCounty
05

If you run the restaurant

The record is public either way. The useful move is to read it before a customer does.

Step one

Pull your own record

Search yourself in the lookup above and read every line of the last three reports. Repeat violations are what escalate.

Step two

Work the ten risk factors

Most citations trace back to the same ten practices the FDA measures nationally. Run the ten-minute self-check.

Step three

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 Maryland?

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