How to read the inspection scores
Everything below is limited to what the official sources say. Where they are silent, we say so rather than fill the gap.
Who inspects, and under which rules
The City describes the dataset as food establishment inspection scores from inspections “performed within the last 3 years”, “conducted in accordance with the Texas Food Establishment Rules (TFER) and City of Austin Codes”, by Environmental Health Officers of Austin Public Health's Environmental Health Services Division. — dataset description, data.austintexas.gov
The feed includes many kinds of food establishments — restaurants, markets, convenience stores, school kitchens, caterers and others — including places outside Austin city limits that Austin Public Health inspects.
The score and its color band
Each inspection row carries a numeric score and a category label the City assigns. The labels in the current feed are:
- 90+ (Green)
- 70-89 (Yellow)
- Under 70 (Red)
We show the label exactly as the City publishes it for each inspection; we do not compute our own grade. Austin Public Health also reports, as a performance measure, the share of routine inspections that “result in a score of 80 or higher”, which it counts as “substantially compliant”. — City of Austin ePerformance measure
We have not found an official City of Austin document, current and public, that sets out how an individual score is calculated or what action a particular score triggers, so we do not describe one. For those questions, contact Austin Public Health Environmental Health Services at 512-978-0300.
Inspection types
The feed currently uses two types: Routine Inspection and Follow-Up Inspection. On the Texas inspection report form, the inspector records a follow-up determination — “the determination of whether to conduct a re-inspection or other enforcement action”. — Texas DSHS, Instructions for Marking the Food Establishment Inspection Report The feed does not say why any particular follow-up happened, so we don't either. A follow-up can appear on the same day as a routine inspection.
What the feed does not include
The City's open-data feed has no itemized violations, no inspector notes and no corrective actions — only the date, score, category and type of each inspection. So 512 cannot tell you what an inspector found, and a page without violations listed does not mean there were none.
“No score published”
A small number of inspection rows have no score in the feed. We show them as “No score published” and do not guess a value or a reason.
A score of 0
A few rows show a score of exactly 0. The City does not explain these. We display the 0 as published, labelled, and do not treat it as the lowest possible result or as a missing value — it may not be comparable to other scores.
Dates: inspection date vs. “source last checked”
- Inspection date — the day the inspection happened, as published by the City.
- Source last checked — when 512 last successfully read the City feed (currently Oct 16, 2026, 4:53 pm CDT). The City says it updates the dataset every two weeks, and recent inspections can take weeks to appear.
Archived history
The City feed covers about the last three years, so older inspections drop out of it over time. 512 keeps each inspection it has imported and labels it “archived” once it is no longer in the current feed. Leaving the feed is not evidence that a business closed.
What a page here does not claim
- That the list of establishments is complete. We publish only reviewed places.
- That a business is open, closed, or still at the address shown.
- That the inspection address is where customers are served. Food trucks and caterers are often inspected at a commissary or kitchen.