Food Protection
The Food Protection program inspects and permits food service establishments including:
- restaurants
- mobile food units (food trucks)
- temporary events such as festivals
- public food service (hospitals, schools, and child/adult care facilities)
This program strengthens regulation and policies for prevention of foodborne illnesses, educates public health professionals, food service employees, and consumers, and responds to foodborne illness outbreaks and food-related emergencies.
To view restaurant inspection reports, go to the VDH Inspection page.
Lodging
The Lodging program provides annual safety inspections of hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts, and migrant farm worker housing. Environmental health staff also investigates complaints of these public facilities.
Recreational Facilities
The Recreational Facilities program provides health and safety inspections at regulated public facilities including public swimming pools, children's summer camps, campgrounds, and fairs/festivals.
Animal Disease Prevention
The Animal Disease Prevention (rabies) program deals with concerns of rabies and its potential spread to the human population. The program investigates reports of possible exposure to rabies, submits animal specimens to the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services for rabies testing, and follows up on both animal and human exposure.
Public notices of rabies cases can be found on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
Water & Wastewater
The Water and Wastewater program provides surveillance, inspection, and regulatory oversight of private wells, on-site sewage systems, and sewage handlers. System designs are submitted by the private sector for review by our staff in all localities except Wythe & Smyth Counties, where we provide direct system design services. We are also a provider of last resort for these services in all localities.
Helpful links:
Ticks
If you find a tick on yourself or another family member (but not the furry, four-legged variety of family member - people only), please complete this survey and help Virginia's epidemiologists learn more about tick ecology in the Commonwealth. Learn more about diseases and illnesses caused by ticks here!