Frequently Asked Questions

A 0-100 numeric rating that normalizes raw health inspection data from any US jurisdiction into a single consistent scale. A score of 100 means a perfect inspection with zero violations, while scores below 60 indicate significant food safety concerns.

The score uses four components: violation severity weighting (critical violations deduct 8-15 points, major 3-5, minor 1-2), corrected-on-site credit (50% point reduction for violations fixed during the inspection), inspection type adjustment, and jurisdiction normalization to ensure scores are comparable across different health departments.

Yes. All data originates from official health department inspection records published by county, city, or state health departments. FoodSafe Score API does not generate or estimate inspection results - we normalize and expose what regulators have already published.

Data freshness varies by jurisdiction. 12 major city health departments update daily, 180+ jurisdictions update weekly, and 220+ update monthly. Each jurisdiction record in the API includes last_updated and update_frequency fields so you can surface data freshness to your users.

Sign up for a free API key - no credit card required. Your account is provisioned with fsa_test_ prefixed sandbox keys for development, plus 500 production calls per month on the free tier. See the quickstart guide for your first authenticated request in under five minutes.

A stable, jurisdiction-agnostic identifier assigned to every restaurant in our database. Use GET /restaurants/search to find restaurants and retrieve their IDs - you can search by name, street address, or GPS coordinates. Store the ID in your database to avoid re-querying search on every lookup.

Currently FoodSafe Score API covers restaurants across 38 states and over 400 county and city jurisdictions, representing approximately 800,000 restaurant locations. Coverage expands continuously as new jurisdictions publish machine-readable inspection data. See the coverage map for a live view of supported regions.

If the most recent inspection on record is older than 18 months, foodsafe_score returns null and score_grade returns "N/A". The last_inspection_date field is always populated when a historical record exists, so you can communicate data age directly to end users.

Rate limits are enforced per API key per rolling minute window:

• Free - 10 requests/min, 500/month
• Starter - 60 requests/min
• Pro - 300 requests/min
• Enterprise - custom limits

Exceeded limits return HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header.

Yes, webhook support is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. Subscribe to score.changed events scoped to individual restaurant IDs or entire jurisdictions. Payloads are delivered via HTTPS POST with HMAC-SHA256 signatures for verification. See the webhooks documentation for setup details.

Yes. The sandbox base URL is sandbox.api.foodsafescoreapi.com/v1. Use API keys prefixed with fsa_test_ to access it. The sandbox returns deterministic mock data for all endpoints - the same input always produces the same response - and does not consume your production quota.

Inspection findings that directly risk foodborne illness. Common examples include improper temperature control of potentially hazardous foods, cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat items, inadequate handwashing facilities or practices, and evidence of pests. Critical violations carry the heaviest weight in the FoodSafe Score calculation, deducting 8-15 points each.