Fast-food chains in Sacramento County, by county inspection records
See how often a routine food inspection ended in a yellow or red placard at each fast-food chain’s restaurants in Sacramento County, next to the rate for every restaurant in the county. Yellow means two or more major violations; red means the restaurant was closed.
Covers: All of Sacramento County, including the cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Folsom and Rancho Cordova, which the county inspects as one jurisdiction.
The short answer
Eight of the 9 chains came in under the local rate.
- 8under the local rate
- 1too close to call
- 0over the local rate
The local rate is the tall line in the chart below. Across all restaurants and food preparation establishments in Sacramento County, 7.9% of routine inspections ended in a yellow or red placard, meaning two or more major violations or a closure.
Chain by chain
Each bar is the range a chain’s real rate probably falls in: the fewer inspections, the wider the bar. The short tick is the rate we measured. Bars that overlap are too close to call, so rows run from the lowest measured rate to the highest for reading only.
- Under the local rate
- Too close to call
- Over the local rate
Why the chains are not numbered first to last. The lowest rate on file is Starbucks at 1.0% and the highest is Jack in the Box at 5.6%. Those two really are apart: their ranges do not touch. But only 0 of the 9 chains can be told apart from the chain in the middle of the list. The rest are too close to it to call.
18 more chains with too few inspections to chart
A chain needs 100 routine inspections on file here before it gets a bar. These have fewer: Domino's (96), KFC (89), Popeyes (79), Wendy's (67), Wingstop (67), Panera (53), Jersey Mike's (49), Pizza Hut (36), Chick-fil-A (30), Arby's (25), Five Guys (23), Dunkin' (22), Dairy Queen (20), Raising Cane's (18), Papa John's (15), Firehouse Subs (13), Shake Shack (11), Sonic (6).
What stands out
8 of the 9 chains are clearly under the county rate, and none is clearly over it. A yellow or red placard is uncommon: 7.9% of 16,262 routine inspections ended in one. The chains on the chart run from 1.0% to 5.6%, and for 8 of them the whole range sits under the county’s figure.
These rates rest on very few findings. 4 of the 9 chains have three or fewer yellow or red placards on file over the whole period. That is enough to say a chain is under a 7.9% rate, because its range stops short of it. It is nowhere near enough to order the chains among themselves: their ranges overlap almost completely, and one more placard would move any of them.
Jack in the Box is too close to call. 8 of 143 for Jack in the Box, a range of 2.9% to 10.7%. That range takes in the county’s 7.9%, so these records cannot say which side of it the chain is on.
Starbucks has the most inspections on file. 4 of 385, a rate of 1.0% between 0.4% and 2.6%. Part of a low figure for a coffee counter is the menu: major violations are mostly about holding, cooling and handling food, and a counter that does little of that gives an inspector less to find.
The county rate has crept up. It was 7.6% in 2024 and is 9.1% so far in 2026. Most of the rise is in the last year, spread over several quarters rather than arriving in one step, so one rate over the whole period is still a fair summary. A chain inspected mostly in the later months would look slightly worse for it.
What is left out. The county’s file lists current permits only, so restaurants that have since closed drop out, for chains and for the county rate alike. It also does not say which permit a report belongs to, so a place that holds a restaurant permit alongside another kind, such as a supermarket with a deli counter or an arena, is left out of the county rate altogether; no chain restaurant was affected. Domino's (96), KFC (89) and Popeyes (79) are just short of the 100 it takes to draw a bar and are listed without one.
Written September 2026. The figures in it are read from the current records, so they move when the records do.
How inspections work in Sacramento County
Restaurants across Sacramento County, in the city of Sacramento and in Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Folsom and Rancho Cordova alike, are inspected by one agency, the county’s Environmental Management Department. Routine visits are not announced. In the department’s words, “The food facility does not usually know when the specialist will be conducting routine inspections or complaint investigations. Follow-up and permit inspections may be scheduled in advance.”
Every inspection ends in a placard, which the county requires the restaurant to post “within 5 feet of the main entrance.” Green is a pass: “No more than one (1) major violation (corrected during the inspection) was observed. Minor violations, if any, are required to be corrected within the time frame indicated on the inspection report.” Yellow is a conditional pass: “Two (2) or more major violations were observed that required immediate correction,” and a follow-up inspection comes within 24 to 72 hours. Red is a closure, “required when an imminent danger to public health and safety is observed. Examples include surfacing sewage, no hot water, rodent/insect infestation, or severe unsanitary conditions.”
This page counts routine inspections that ended in yellow or red. A green placard does not mean nothing was found, since it allows one corrected major violation and any number of minor ones, so the figures here count the inspections that went past the county’s own line, not every inspection with a finding.
One visit can produce two reports. Alongside the food inspection, the county often files a second report from another of its programmes, with results worded differently (“In Compliance”, “Minor Violations”). Those are not food placards and are not counted here.
What this can’t tell you
- Who runs the better kitchen. Chains handle different food. 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 sums up that chain’s locations in Sacramento County over this period. It is not a statement about the brand elsewhere and not a warning about the one near you.
- Whether every restaurant got equal attention. Inspections are scheduled by risk and by past results, so a restaurant with problems is visited more often and shows up more often in these counts. That holds for chains and for all restaurants and food preparation establishments alike.
- How Sacramento County compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different thing under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Sacramento County.
How we counted
- Source. Food Inspections: Inspection and Violation History, published by the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department. Pulled September 21, 2026.
- What counts. Only routine food inspection reports at restaurants and food preparation establishments; follow-up, complaint and permit inspections are left out, as are markets, schools, bars, mobile units and caterers, and any facility that also holds another kind of permit, such as a supermarket with a deli counter. Reports from other county programmes made on the same visit are not food inspections and are not counted. Inspectors go back to restaurants that already had a problem, so counting return visits would stack the numbers.
- The figure. For each chain, the number of those inspections that ended in a yellow or red placard, meaning two or more major violations or a closure, divided by all of them. “All restaurants and food preparation establishments” is the same sum over everything in the file, chains included.
- 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.
- The minimum. A chain needs 100 counted inspections to be charted. Below that it is listed with its count and no bar.
- Matching names to chains. Restaurant names are matched to chains with a published table of name patterns (version 2026-09-20.4). 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.
- Reuse. Public domain: Sacramento County publishes the dataset under a Creative Commons public domain dedication.
The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.
Placard definitions and how inspections are conducted: Sacramento County EMD, food facility questions and answers and the county’s 311 answer on placards. We count reports typed Routine whose result is a placard, at facilities permitted only as restaurants or food preparation establishments; follow-up, complaint and permit inspections are separate types and are left out. The file holds a rolling three years. A chain needs 100 inspections to be charted.
Informational only. These are public records, summarized; they are not a safety rating of any restaurant and not professional advice. Last reviewed: September 2026.
Quote or download these figures
You may quote any figure on this page. Please credit FastFoodFact with a link, keep the count and the range with the rate, and don’t set a figure from one place against a figure from another: each place counts a different thing.
FastFoodFact, "Fast-food chains in Sacramento County." Counted from Food Inspections: Inspection and Violation History, Sacramento County Environmental Management Department; routine inspections September 25, 2023 to September 18, 2026, pulled September 21, 2026. https://www.fastfoodfact.com/sacramento
The counts as a file: CSV or JSON. Each file covers one place and names its source.
Frequently asked questions
What do the green, yellow and red placards mean in Sacramento County?
They sum up a restaurant's most recent inspection, and the county defines them. Green ("Pass"): "No more than one (1) major violation (corrected during the inspection) was observed." Yellow ("Conditional Pass"): "Two (2) or more major violations were observed that required immediate correction", with a follow-up inspection within 24 to 72 hours. Red ("Closed"): "Closure is required when an imminent danger to public health and safety is observed." This page counts routine inspections that ended in yellow or red.
How often do Sacramento restaurants get a yellow or red placard?
Not often. In these records, 7.9% of 16,262 routine food inspections of restaurants and food preparation establishments ended in one. That is the rate every chain on this page is compared with. It cannot be read against another place's figure: a Sacramento yellow placard is not the same event as a Chicago Fail or a Louisville C.
Does a green placard mean the inspector found nothing?
No. The county's definition of green allows one major violation, if it was corrected during the inspection, and any number of minor ones, which have to be corrected by the date on the report. So this page counts the inspections that went past that line, not every inspection that found something.
Which fast-food chain gets the fewest yellow or red placards in Sacramento?
The lowest rate on file is Starbucks: 4 of its 385 routine inspections ended in one, a rate of 1.0% with a likely range of 0.4% to 2.6%. Other chains have ranges that overlap it, so this site does not number them first to last. The figure describes that chain's Sacramento County locations over this period, not any single restaurant.
The guide to these records
- What Sacramento's Green, Yellow and Red Placards Actually Say
A green placard in Sacramento County does not mean the inspector found nothing. What each colour allows, what a yellow sets in motion, why one visit can produce two reports, and how to read a restaurant's record.
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