San Diego · Fire and Food Safety
San Diego Commercial Kitchen Compliance
A commercial kitchen in the City of San Diego answers to three agencies: San Diego Fire-Rescue for fire safety, San Diego County Environmental Health and Quality for food safety, and the city's Public Utilities Department for grease. Here is who does what, and what each one expects to see.
Who Enforces Fire Code in San Diego
Inside city limits, fire code is enforced by San Diego Fire-Rescue's Community Risk Reduction Division. Most inspections are done by its Deputy Fire Marshals, assigned either by specialty (hazardous materials, residential, high-rise) or by region: north, south and metro.
The San Diego Fire Code is Chapter 5, Article 11 of the San Diego Municipal Code: the California Fire Code, combined with the city's own amendments. The 2025 California Fire Code has been in effect statewide since January 1, 2026, and it is the path by which NFPA 96, the standard for commercial kitchen exhaust systems, applies to your hood, ducts and fan, in the edition California has adopted.
The usable part: San Diego bills its fire inspections by the hour, and if an inspection takes more than two visits to close, every visit after the second carries a separate re-inspection fee. The kitchen that has its exhaust cleaning and suppression service records ready at the first visit pays the least.
Who Inspects Food Safety in San Diego
Food safety in the City of San Diego is inspected by the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality's Food and Housing Division. San Diego County is one of a handful of California counties that posts letter grades. Each violation carries points by its importance: four for a major risk factor, two for a minor one, one for a good retail practice. The total comes off 100.
A is 90 to 100, satisfactory. B is 80 to 89, needs improvement. C is 79 or less, and it is a failing grade. The card must be displayed near the public entrance during business hours. When the inspector finds an imminent health hazard, a "Closed" sign replaces the grade card, and the kitchen stays closed until the county authorizes reopening in writing, with every major violation corrected.
What's Local: The City's Grease Permit
Every food service establishment in the City of San Diego must hold a permit from the Public Utilities Department's Food Establishment Wastewater Discharge Program, which has permitted kitchens since 1989 and now covers more than 5,000 of them. Most use a hydromechanical grease interceptor installed inside; more than 1,400, usually high-volume or new kitchens, use a gravity grease interceptor buried outside.
The usable part: every plan for a new, remodeled or retrofitted kitchen must pass the program's plan review, and the review currently costs nothing. Get it before construction, not after. When a grease-related sewer spill happens nearby, the program inspects the kitchens around it, and a kitchen that misses a deadline for added grease equipment faces a Notice of Violation with a fee, then permit revocation and, at the end, loss of sewer service.
San Diego Follows San Diego County's Framework
For how San Diego County grades and publishes inspections, and how it compares with the rest of California, see the San Diego County page.