Every Suffolk County restaurant is inspected by the Department of Health, and every violation is logged in a public database. We analyzed the full year of that data to answer a simple question: how many of the violations restaurants actually get are the kind a good cleaning program would prevent? The answer is most of them.
In 2024, the Suffolk County DOH recorded 55,566 restaurant violations across 193 sanitary code sections. Roughly 56% of them fall into cleaning and sanitation categories — dirty surfaces, unclean floors and walls, grease accumulation, food stored improperly, and equipment that is not kept clean or cleanable.
The 12 most common violations in Suffolk County (2024)
| # | Sanitary code | What it requires | Violations (2024) | Share | Cleaning-preventable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 760-1354.1 | Handwashing sinks available and stocked in prep and toilet areas | 2,765 | 5.0% | Yes |
| 2 | 760-1345.1 | Equipment and utensils smooth, durable, and easily cleanable | 2,535 | 4.6% | Yes |
| 3 | 760-1346.6 | Non-food-contact surfaces kept free of dust, dirt, and grease | 2,328 | 4.2% | Yes |
| 4 | 760-1334.1 | Food stored above the floor on clean racks and surfaces | 2,182 | 3.9% | Yes |
| 5 | 760-1332.3 | Temperature-controlled food held at safe temperatures | 2,162 | 3.9% | No (temperature) |
| 6 | 760-1360.1 | Floors, walls, and ceilings kept clean | 2,034 | 3.7% | Yes |
| 7 | 760-1340.6 | Certified person-in-charge on site | 1,715 | 3.1% | No (management) |
| 8 | 760-1346.3.a | Kitchenware and food-contact surfaces cleaned and sanitized | 1,549 | 2.8% | Yes |
| 9 | 760-1352.1.b | Plumbing properly sized, installed, and maintained | 1,517 | 2.7% | Partly |
| 10 | 760-1346.13.b | Warewashing sinks supplied with hot and cold water | 1,474 | 2.7% | No (infrastructure) |
| 11 | 760-1346.8 | Sponges and wiping cloths kept in sanitizer and restricted | 1,247 | 2.2% | Yes |
| 12 | 760-1332.2 | Accurate food thermometers present | 1,231 | 2.2% | No |
The pattern is hard to miss. After handwashing facilities, the most-cited issues are non-food-contact surfaces left with dust, dirt, and grease (2,328 citations), food stored improperly rather than up off the floor (2,182), and floors, walls, and ceilings that are not kept clean (2,034). Add equipment that is not smooth and easily cleanable, dirty food-contact surfaces, and misused wiping cloths, and the top of the list is dominated by conditions a disciplined cleaning routine is built to prevent.
What this means for a restaurant owner
Temperature control and having a certified person in charge are on your team and your training. But the largest single share of what gets cited is environmental: whether surfaces, floors, and equipment are actually clean. Those are exactly the failures a scheduled, documented cleaning program removes. Restaurants that stay off the violation list tend to be the ones running a real program rather than scrambling before each inspection.
Our Long Island restaurant cleaning and Suffolk County DOH compliance guide breaks down how to build that program, from daily and weekly frameworks to NFPA 96 hood cleaning and floor degreasing. For the service itself, see our restaurant cleaning services, and for the wider commercial picture, our commercial cleaning guide.
Methodology
Figures are from the Suffolk County Open Data “Restaurant Violations: 2024” dataset (55,566 violation records across 193 Suffolk County Sanitary Code sections), covering the full calendar year of DOH restaurant inspection violations. Counts are exact; the “cleaning-preventable” grouping reflects violations tied to surface, floor, equipment, storage, grease, and sanitation cleanliness. Source: Suffolk County Open Data (opendata.suffolkcountyny.gov).
E & J Cleaning is a Long Island commercial cleaning company. This analysis is provided as a public resource for restaurant owners and operators. Call 1-877-443-2635 to talk about a cleaning program for your kitchen.