Abstract The consistency of inspections is an important requirement of official food control. Inconsistency may endanger food safety and lead to mistrust in official food control. The reasons leading to inconsistency and the mitigation of inconsistency are therefore important. Here we investigated the distribution of restaurant (n = 4989) inspection grades from 2014 in Finland to elucidate reasons for possible differences in grades. The analyses revealed both regional and local differences in the overall grades. In addition, the distribution of the own-check sections' grades between local food control units revealed a large variation, indicating inconsistent assessments of inspection findings. The inspector resources in the local food control units did not explain the discrepancies. However, we found that differences in grades are to a certain extent explained by factors related to the economic status and urbanization of the area. The effects of socioeconomic factors appear moderate, and the differences in the inspectors' evaluations of compliance remain an important issue that should be addressed on a national level through inspector training.

中文翻译：

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公开的餐厅食品安全检查结果显示芬兰的区域和地方差异

摘要 检验的一致性是官方食品控制的重要要求。不一致可能危及食品安全并导致对官方食品控制的不信任。因此，导致不一致的原因和缓解不一致很重要。在这里，我们调查了 2014 年芬兰餐厅 (n = 4989) 检验等级的分布，以阐明可能存在等级差异的原因。分析揭示了整体成绩的区域和地方差异。此外，自检部门的等级分布在地方食品监管单位之间存在较大差异，表明对检查结果的评估不一致。当地食品控制单位的检查员资源没有解释这些差异。然而，我们发现等级差异在一定程度上是由与该地区经济状况和城市化程度相关的因素来解释的。社会经济因素的影响似乎中等，检查员对遵守情况的评估的差异仍然是一个重要问题，应通过检查员培训在国家层面解决。