Food safety, licensing, and inspections are run by different bodies depending on the country — and often depending on the state, county, or council within it. There is no single global authority for any of this. These are the official sources for each function, organized by what they actually do.
US — Food & Drug Administration
What: The FDA regulates the safety of most food sold in the US (meat, poultry, and some egg products are USDA/FSIS — see Section 6 for their recall database).
UK — Food Standards Agency
What: The FSA sets food safety and hygiene standards for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (Food Standards Scotland covers Scotland separately).
Australia/NZ — Food Standards Australia New Zealand
What: FSANZ develops the food standards code for Australia and New Zealand. Day-to-day enforcement (inspections, licensing) sits with each state/territory — see Sections 2 and 3.
EU — European Commission Food Safety
What: The European Commission sets EU-wide food safety rules. Actual inspection and enforcement is run by each member state's own national food authority — not a single EU body (see Section 2).
Who actually inspects a restaurant's kitchen — a different, more local function than Section 1's standard-setting.
US — Retail Food Protection (FDA)
What: The FDA sets the model Food Code and supports state/local programs, but does not itself inspect restaurants. Actual health inspections are run by more than 3,000 state, county, and local health departments — there is no single national inspection lookup. Search "[your city/county] health department food inspections" for your specific area.
UK — Food Hygiene Rating Scheme lookup
What: The official searchable database of hygiene inspection ratings (0–5 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland; pass/improvement-required in Scotland) for individual food businesses, held on behalf of local authorities.
Got a low rating? Read our full guide on appeals, revisits, and the right to reply →EU — Run by each member state
What: There is no single EU-wide restaurant inspection portal. Inspections are carried out by each member state's own national food authority under EU-wide rules. This page is the entry point to find yours.
Australia — Run at the state level
What: Restaurant health inspections in Australia are run by each state/territory health department, not FSANZ itself. FSANZ is the entry point for the food standards those inspections check against.
Who issues the license to actually open and operate a food business — separate from the safety standards (Section 1) and inspections (Section 2) above.
US — Business licenses & permits (SBA)
What: Restaurant licensing in the US is issued at the city, county, and state level, not federally. The SBA's guide covers the licensing process in general and names restaurants specifically as a locally-regulated activity — a starting point, not a single lookup.
UK — Food business registration (GOV.UK)
What: Official guidance on registering a food business with your local authority — required at least 28 days before trading in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
EU — Handled per member state
What: Restaurant licensing in the EU is handled entirely by each member state's own national or local authority — there is no single EU-wide licensing portal to link to. Check your national government's business-registration site directly.
Australia — Australian Business Licence & Information Service
What: business.gov.au's licence-finder tool. Food business licensing is issued by state/territory and local council, not federally — ABLIS is the starting point to find the exact licence for your state and council.
The major food delivery platforms' own sites — for order issues, refunds, and account problems, go through the platform first.
Uber Eats
Deliveroo
Just Eat
DoorDash
The major restaurant booking platforms' own sites — for booking issues or cancellations, go through the platform first.
OpenTable
Resy
TheFork
Check whether a specific product has been recalled — one database per region, plus a US-specific one for meat, poultry, and egg products.
US — FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals & Safety Alerts
US — FSIS Recalls (meat, poultry & egg)
What: Meat, poultry, and certain egg products are recalled through FSIS specifically, not the FDA database above.
UK — Food Standards Agency alerts
EU — RASFF Consumers' Portal
Australia/NZ — Food Recalls
US — FTC complaint portal
What: There is no single "hospitality ombudsman" in the US. The FTC's portal is the general consumer-complaint route for a restaurant, delivery platform, or booking service. Food safety complaints go to the FDA or USDA/FSIS separately (see Section 6) — not the FTC.
UK — Citizens Advice consumer help
EU — European Consumer Centres Network
What: ECC-Net routes cross-border EU consumer complaints to the right national body, via 29 centres across the EU, Norway, and Iceland.