Fast-food chains in Florida, by state inspection records

What stands out

A high-priority violation is the normal result, not the exception. Across all Florida restaurants, 58.2% of routine inspections recorded at least one. Read every figure on this page against that. A chain at 40% is not a chain in trouble; it is a chain whose restaurants drew the state’s most serious category of finding less often than Florida restaurants usually do.

Here many chains do separate. In most places we cover, chains have a few hundred inspections each and their ranges overlap. In Florida the large chains have thousands (Subway 3,261, Wendy's 3,001, McDonald's 2,642), so the ranges are a few points wide and 16 of the 30 charted chains can be told apart from the one in the middle. Pizza Hut at 21.1% and Taco Bell at 26.3% are each clearly below most of the chains under them in the table.

Pizza delivery sits low, mostly. Pizza Hut (21.1%), Domino's (29.9%) and Papa John's (34.2%) are all in the lower part of the table; Little Caesars (40.6%) is not. One plausible reason is the kitchen itself: a short menu, little raw meat handled on site, and almost no dining room. The records cannot confirm that, and Little Caesars shows the pattern is not a rule.

The top of the table is close to the state rate. Zaxby's has the highest measured rate at 52.9%, with a likely range of 48.2% to 57.6% against 58.2% for all restaurants. That is a small gap. It would not take much new data to make it one we could no longer call.

Starbucks is missing for a reason we can only half explain. Only 92 Florida inspections matched the name, against hundreds in the cities we cover, and most of the names that matched are counters inside hotels, airports and resorts. Ordinary Starbucks stores do not appear in this file in any number. We have not confirmed why, so we say only that: they are not here, and the 92 that are here are too few to chart.

Analysis written September 2026. The figures in it are read from the current records, so they move when the records do.

How inspections work in Florida

Restaurants in Florida are inspected by the state, through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants. The division says every establishment it regulates gets between one and four unannounced inspections a year.

Violations come in three tiers. In the division’s words, high-priority violations are those which “could contribute directly to a foodborne illness or injury”; intermediate violations “could lead to risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury” if not addressed; basic violations are “best practices to implement.” This page counts only the first tier, and only whether an inspection recorded at least one, not how many.

When an inspection finds something that must be fixed, the inspector returns for a callback. The state’s files record each callback as a further visit on the same inspection. We count visit one only.

How these figures are made

1. Source. DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants — food service inspection extracts, published by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
2. What counts. Only first visits of routine inspections at permanent food-service licenses; callbacks, complaint and licensing inspections are left out. Inspectors go back to restaurants that already had a problem, so counting return visits would stack the numbers.
3. The figure. For each chain, the number of those inspections that recorded at least one high-priority violation, divided by all of them. “All restaurants” is the same sum over everything in the file, chains included.
4. The range. A 95% Wilson score interval. If we could rerun the same period many times, the true rate would land inside a range built this way about 19 times in 20. Fewer inspections means a wider range.
5. The minimum. A chain needs 100 counted inspections to be charted. Below that it is listed with its count and no bar.
6. Matching names to chains. Restaurant names are matched to chains with a published table of name patterns (version 2026-09-20.3). A location recorded under two chain names, such as a combined KFC and Taco Bell, is counted for neither. If a match is wrong, write to hello@fastfoodfact.com and it will be corrected.
7. Reuse. Public records under Florida Statutes chapter 119. The division's notes on the files state no restriction on reuse and no attribution requirement.

The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.

Definitions and inspection frequency: DBPR, Division of Hotels and Restaurants — Inspections. File layout, visit numbers and license types: the division’s public records page. We count license type 2010 (permanent food service) and leave out caterers, mobile vendors, vending machines and theme-park carts. A chain needs 100 inspections to be charted.

What this does not show

• Management quality on its own. Chains differ in what they handle. A coffee counter deals with far less raw food than a kitchen that fries chicken, so part of any gap between chains is the menu.
• Anything about one restaurant. A figure describes that chain’s locations in Florida over this period. It is not a statement about the brand elsewhere and not a warning about the one near you.
• Every restaurant equally. Inspections are scheduled by risk and by past results, so a restaurant with problems is visited more often and appears more often in these counts. That holds for chains and for all restaurants alike.
• How Florida compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different event under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Florida.

Informational only. These are public records, summarized; they are not a safety rating of any restaurant and not professional advice. Last reviewed: September 2026.