How Pass or Fail Works

Pass or Fail collects restaurant health inspection records from public-health authorities across Canada and puts them in one searchable place. This page explains what an inspection actually checks, what the outcomes mean, and what this data can and can’t tell you before you decide where to eat.

What a health inspection actually checks

When a public-health inspector visits a restaurant, they’re looking for things that could make you sick. The big ones: food kept at unsafe temperatures, pests, dirty equipment, employees who haven’t been trained in proper food handling, and cross-contamination between raw and cooked items. Inspectors take notes, sometimes photos, and write up a report. That report is what ends up here.

A typical inspection covers:

Cold and hot holding temperatures (cold food under 4 °C, hot food over 60 °C)
Hand-washing facilities and whether staff actually use them
Cleanliness of food-contact surfaces, utensils, and equipment
Evidence of pests: mice, cockroaches, fruit flies, droppings
Food storage practices (raw meat below ready-to-eat food, lids on containers, dates on labels)
Whether at least one person on duty has a current food-handler certification

Note that none of this measures the food itself. The grade is on the kitchen.

How different authorities report results

Canadian health authorities don’t share a single vocabulary for inspection results. Pass or Fail covers seven different reporting schemes. The original label from the source authority is shown alongside the record on every restaurant page, so you can see exactly what the inspector wrote.

Pass / Conditional pass / Closed. Used by most Ontario authorities, including Toronto Public Health (DineSafe), Peel, Halton, York, the Region of Waterloo, Ottawa Public Health, and Hamilton Public Health Services.

Pass: no critical violations, or only minor issues that don’t pose an immediate risk.
Conditional pass: violations were found that the operator must correct within a set period. An inspector returns to verify. Common triggers include a broken dishwasher, an out-of-temperature cooler, no soap at the hand-wash station, or evidence of pests that needs follow-up.
Closed: the inspector ordered the kitchen to stop serving customers until issues are corrected. Rare. Triggers include active pest infestation, sewage backup, no running water, repeated failure to fix a previous violation, or an outbreak of foodborne illness traced to the premises.

Pass / Closed. Used by Alberta Health Services Environmental Public Health across Alberta.

AHS records each visit as a routine inspection with any violations noted, or as a closed order. There’s no “conditional pass” tier. If you see violations listed without a closed order, the operator was allowed to keep serving while addressing the issues.

In compliance / Not in compliance / Closed. Used by Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) for London.

The same three-outcome shape as the Ontario scheme above, in different words. In compliance maps to pass. Not in compliance maps to conditional pass: violations were found and the operator must correct them, with a re-inspection scheduled.

Violations list (no overall category). Used by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and Interior Health (IHA) across the Vancouver area and the BC Interior.

These authorities don’t publish a single pass-or-fail label for each visit. The report lists specific violations and notes whether each was corrected on the spot. A report with no listed violations means none were recorded that day. Pass or Fail shows the full violation list on each restaurant page.

Low / Moderate / High hazard rating. Used by Island Health (VIHA) on Vancouver Island.

VIHA assigns each premise a hazard rating that reflects the inherent risk of its operation, not the result of a single visit. A High rating doesn’t mean the kitchen is dirty. It means the type of food handled places the premise in a higher-risk category that VIHA monitors more closely. Specific violations from each visit are listed alongside the rating.

Pass / Not in compliance / Closed. Used by the Saskatchewan Health Authority via the provincial Inspection InSite portal (Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Prince Albert).

The same three-outcome shape as the Ontario scheme, with Not in compliance used in place of conditional pass.

Convictions only. Used for Québec restaurants. Montréal data comes from the city’s open-data portal; the rest of the province comes from the MAPAQ provincial dataset.

Québec doesn’t publish routine inspection results. The only public food-safety records are court convictions under the Food Products Act (Loi sur les produits alimentaires, P-29). A Québec restaurant page with no record doesn’t mean the kitchen is clean. It means the operator hasn’t been convicted of a food-safety offence. Most haven’t.

How often inspections happen

Frequency varies by authority and by the kind of food a place serves. Some authorities publish their inspection schedules openly. Many adjust visits in response to complaints, outbreaks, or recent violations.

If you see a string of inspections close together on a restaurant’s page here, it’s usually because something prompted the follow-up.

Critical vs non-critical violations

Most reports list each violation found, often with a severity tag.

A critical violation has a direct connection to foodborne illness. Examples: food held at a temperature that lets bacteria grow, raw poultry stored above ready-to-eat food, employees handling food without washing their hands, a confirmed pest problem.

A non-critical violation matters but isn’t an immediate danger. Examples: a chipped cutting board, a dirty floor in the storage area, a missing thermometer in a fridge, faded signage.

The number of violations isn’t always the right signal. A restaurant with eight non-critical issues might be safer than one with a single critical one. Pass or Fail shows both numbers so you can decide for yourself.

How follow-up visits work

When an inspector finds a violation that needs correcting, a follow-up visit is typically scheduled. The interval depends on the authority and the severity of the violation. On the return visit, the inspector checks whether the specific issues from the last report have been fixed.

In our data, you’ll see each visit listed separately in the inspection history. A flagged inspection followed quickly by a clean one usually means the operator handled the issue and the kitchen is back in good standing.

What this data can’t tell you

A health inspection is a snapshot of one day. Conditions change. A restaurant that passed last month might be in the middle of a rough week today. A restaurant cited for a critical violation in 2022 might have new owners, new staff, and a spotless kitchen now.

Pass or Fail doesn’t audit the data. We mirror what the health authority publishes. If we have a record wrong, the source authority’s record is authoritative. If you find an error, write to us at contact@passorfail.ca and we’ll look into it.

Inspections also don’t measure things you might care about: how the food tastes, whether the service was good, whether the menu has the dish you want. They measure whether the kitchen meets the minimum legal standard for food safety. That’s a useful floor. It isn’t a substitute for your own judgment.

See the About page for the full list of health authorities we currently cover, or the Terms of Use for accuracy and timeliness limitations.