Fast-food chains in Raleigh and Wake County, by county inspection records
See how often a county health inspection marked a foodborne illness risk factor out of compliance at each fast-food chain’s restaurants in Raleigh and the rest of Wake County, next to the rate for every restaurant and food stand in the county.
Covers: All of Wake County, North Carolina, including Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Wake Forest and Garner, which the county inspects as one jurisdiction.
The short answer
10 of the 13 chains came in under the local rate.
- 10under the local rate
- 3too close to call
- 0over the local rate
The local rate is the tall line in the chart below. Across all restaurants and food stands in Raleigh and Wake County, 83.1% of routine inspections marked at least one item out of compliance in the state form's section on foodborne illness risk factors.
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 50.9% and the highest is Subway at 86.0%. Those two really are apart: their ranges do not touch. But only 3 of the 13 chains can be told apart from the chain in the middle of the list. The rest are too close to it to call.
17 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: Five Guys (86), Domino's (71), Popeyes (63), Hardee's (60), Sonic (47), Wingstop (43), Arby's (40), Culver's (39), KFC (32), Dairy Queen (31), Jimmy John's (26), Panda Express (24), Pizza Hut (22), Shake Shack (18), Papa John's (15), Whataburger (2), Raising Cane's (1).
What stands out
The numbers here are large because the finding is common. 83.1% of 21,303 inspections of Wake County restaurants marked at least one risk factor. That is what an ordinary inspection looks like here, and nearly all of those restaurants still hold an A. Read every bar against the 83.1% line: a chain at 65% is recording the finding less often than Wake County restaurants usually do.
10 of the 13 chains are clearly under the county rate, and none is clearly over it. The two ends of the chart are a long way apart: Starbucks at 50.9% (46.3% to 55.4%, 458 inspections) and Subway at 86.0% (82.0% to 89.1%, 363). Those ranges do not touch, and that is a fair comparison to make: one county, one form, one set of inspectors.
Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mike's and Subway are level with the county. Their ranges include the 83.1% rate, so these records cannot say they mark a risk factor more or less often than an ordinary Wake County restaurant. All of them are sandwich chains. A sandwich line holds sliced meat, cheese and cut vegetables cold and open through the day, and cold holding is one of the items in this section of the form. That is a reason to expect the pattern, not proof of what caused it.
Starbucks has the most inspections on file. 233 of 458, a rate of 50.9% between 46.3% and 55.4%. Part of a low figure for a coffee counter is the menu: most of the items in this section are about cooking, cooling and holding food, and a counter that does little of that gives an inspector less to mark.
The county rate has eased over the period. It was 85.6% in 2022 and 81.8% in 2025. The change is gradual, year by year, with no break in it, so one rate over the whole period is a fair summary. A chain inspected mostly in the early years would still look slightly worse for it, and one inspected mostly late slightly better.
Restaurants that closed are missing, and complaint visits are not. The county’s list of restaurants holds current permits only, so inspections of restaurants that have since closed cannot be matched to a name and drop out, for chains and for the county rate alike. The county types its visits as inspection or re-inspection and nothing else, so a visit prompted by a complaint is counted if it was recorded as an inspection. Zaxby's and Firehouse Subs have barely the 100 inspections it takes to draw a bar, so those bars are the widest on the chart. Five Guys (86) and Domino's (71) are just short 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 Raleigh and Wake County
Restaurants in Raleigh, Cary, Apex and every other town in Wake County are inspected by the county, under rules North Carolina sets for the whole state. How often depends on the kitchen. The state’s instructions for the inspection form give every establishment a risk category, a “designation of risk level for determining frequency of inspection”, from category I, establishments “that prepare only non-potentially hazardous foods”, to category IV, those that “cook and cool an unlimited number of potentially hazardous foods.”
Inspections are scored out of 100 and graded by state rule: a score of at least “90 percent shall receive a grade A”, “80 percent and less than 90 percent shall receive a grade B” and “70 percent and less than 80 percent shall receive a grade C.” Below 70 the permit is revoked. A single marked item costs little. The rule caps every item on the form at between one and four points, and when a priority item “may be corrected during the inspection”, “no more than one-half of the total point value shall be deducted.” That is why a restaurant can have a risk factor marked and still score in the high 90s.
The form itself has two halves. The first is headed “Foodborne Illness Risk Factors and Public Health Interventions”, and the form defines the terms: risk factors are “contributing factors that increase the chance of developing foodborne illness” and public health interventions are “control measures to prevent foodborne illness or injury.” The second half, Good Retail Practices, is “preventative measures to control the addition of pathogens, chemicals, and physical objects into foods.” This page counts whether an inspection marked at least one item in the first half out of compliance, and nothing else about it: not how many, not the score, not the grade.
The records start on October 1, 2021 for a reason. That is the day North Carolina moved to a new edition of the form, and the items were renumbered. On the current form the first half is items 1 to 29. Counting from that day keeps the two numberings apart.
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 Raleigh and Wake 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 stands alike.
- How Raleigh and Wake County compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different thing under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Raleigh and Wake County.
How we counted
- Source. Wake County Open Data: Restaurants, Food Inspections and Food Inspection Violations, published by the Wake County Environmental Services. Pulled September 21, 2026.
- What counts. Only inspections of restaurants and food stands; re-inspections are left out, as are mobile units, school lunchrooms, institutions and meat markets. The county does not type complaint visits separately, so any recorded as an inspection are 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 marked at least one item out of compliance in the state form's section on foodborne illness risk factors, divided by all of them. “All restaurants and food stands” 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. Licensed by Wake County under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, which asks for credit, a link to the licence and a note of any changes. That notice is below.
The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.
The form and its definitions: NC DHHS, Food Establishment Inspection Report. Risk categories: NC DHHS, Instructions for Marking the Food Establishment Inspection Report. Grades and point deductions: North Carolina Administrative Code, 15A NCAC 18A .2662 and .2661. We count visits typed Inspection at establishments the county lists as restaurants or food stands; re-inspections are a separate type and are left out, as are mobile units, school lunchrooms, institutions and meat markets. A chain needs 100 inspections to be charted.
Contains data from Wake County Government's open data portal, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). FastFoodFact grouped the county's inspection records by chain and counted them; the county did not make or review these figures. Wake County states that it shall not be held liable for any errors in these data, and that primary sources must be consulted for verification.
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 Raleigh and Wake County." Counted from Wake County Open Data: Restaurants, Food Inspections and Food Inspection Violations, Wake County Environmental Services; routine inspections October 1, 2021 to September 18, 2026, pulled September 21, 2026. https://www.fastfoodfact.com/wake-county
The counts as a file: CSV or JSON. Each file covers one place and names its source.
Frequently asked questions
What is a foodborne illness risk factor on a North Carolina inspection?
North Carolina's inspection form has two sections. The first is headed "Foodborne Illness Risk Factors and Public Health Interventions", and the form defines risk factors as "contributing factors that increase the chance of developing foodborne illness." It covers things like handwashing, holding temperatures, cooking and cooling, and food from approved sources. The second section, Good Retail Practices, covers upkeep and general sanitation. This page counts whether an inspection marked at least one item in the first section out of compliance.
Does a marked risk factor mean a restaurant got a bad grade?
No. Almost every restaurant in Wake County holds an A. North Carolina gives a grade A to any establishment that scores at least 90 percent, and the state caps every item on the form at between one and four points, or half that if it is corrected during the inspection. In these records 83.1% of inspections marked at least one risk factor, so it is the ordinary result of an inspection here, not a rare one.
Why not use the letter grade or the score instead?
Because they barely vary. Nearly every inspection in Wake County ends in an A, so a figure built on the grade would show every chain and the county at almost the same number. Whether an inspector marked a risk factor does vary from chain to chain, and it is a category the state's own form defines, so that is what this page counts.
Which fast-food chain has the fewest risk-factor findings in Raleigh?
The lowest rate on file is Starbucks: 233 of its 458 inspections marked one, a rate of 50.9% with a likely range of 46.3% to 55.4%. Other chains have ranges that overlap it, so this site does not number them first to last. The figure describes that chain's Wake County locations over this period, not any single restaurant.
The guide to these records
- An A on the Door and a Risk Factor on the Report
Nearly every Raleigh restaurant holds a grade A, and most inspections still mark a foodborne illness risk factor. How North Carolina's points, half-deductions and two-part form let both be true, and what the marks on a report mean.
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