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The New York State Department of Health's Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection works to protect the public health by assuring that food service establishments are operated in a manner that eliminates hazards through design and management, resulting in a decreased incidence of foodborne illness in our communities. The Bureau's Food Protection Program also coordinates foodborne outbreak investigations, analyzes the findings and uses this information to develop regulations and guidance designed to prevent similar outbreaks in the future. This data includes the name and location of food service establishments and the violations that were found at the time of their inspections. Violation details are collected on inspection reports (i.e., the actual food item, quantity and temperature of food found out of temperature control) as well as corrective actions for critical violations; this data set is limited to the violation number and the corresponding general violation description.

There are over 90,000 food service establishments in New York State. The Food Protection Program provides guidance and assistance to county and city health departments and State District Offices which in turn permit and inspect food service establishments, some institutional food services, temporary and mobile food service establishments and food and beverage vending machines. Each food service establishment is registered with facility name, business address, inspection dates, violations, etc.

To give New Yorkers the access they deserve to government data and information, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched the Open NY initiative in March 2013 and signed Executive Order 95. It directs state agencies to identify, catalog, and publish their data on the state's open data website administered by the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS). Open NY increases transparency, improves government performance, empowers New Yorkers to participate in government, and encourages research and economic opportunities statewide.