Priority, Priority Foundation, Core: the three words that tell you how bad it is

Scroll through the violations on any restaurant page and you'll see code numbers. Number 38, insects and rodents not present. Number 55, physical facilities installed and clean. Number 10, adequate handwashing sinks. The numbers aren't random. Since the city adopted the FDA food code in 2018, they've been grouped into three tiers, and the tier is the single most useful thing on the report.

Priority: codes 1 through 29

These are the violations most directly connected to someone getting sick. Food held at the wrong temperature. Raw chicken stored above ready-to-eat food. No hot water. An employee working while sick. A hand sink with no soap. If a report has a Priority violation, the inspector found something that could make a meal dangerous today.

Priority Foundation: codes 30 through 44

These are the systems that prevent Priority violations. A certified food manager not on site. No thermometer in the cooler. Pest presence, code 38, lives here, which surprises people. The logic is that pests are a contamination pathway, not contamination itself. Whether you agree with that filing decision, it's why code 38 gets the "Priority Foundation" label in the notes.

Core: codes 45 through 63

Housekeeping and maintenance. Floors, walls, ceilings. Lighting. Grease on the hood. A broken tile. These pile up on almost every inspection, and a restaurant can rack up a dozen of them without any real risk to the food.

Why this matters for reading a report

Two restaurants can each have ten violations. One has ten Core violations, and the kitchen is scuffed and greasy but the food is handled correctly. The other has three Priority violations and seven Core, and that's a very different meal.

Our site currently scores severity mostly from the words in the notes. We're planning to weight these tiers directly, so a Priority violation counts for more than a Core one before we even look at what the inspector wrote. Until then, the fastest way to judge a report yourself is to skip the paragraph and look at the number. Anything under 30 deserves your attention. Anything over 44 is usually about the building, not the food.