Restaurant Inspections: Ashton Avenue Diner, Desiderio, Panera Bread, McDonald's, Lorena's Deli

You may want to know how area restaurants performed in their last Virginia Department of Health inspection.

Restaurants in the Commonwealth are inspected between one and four times a year. There are two types of violations: Critical and non-critical. What's the difference? Critical violations, unless corrected, can contribute to "food contamination, illness or environmental degradation," according to the state health department.

"In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations,"according to Virginia Department of Health's website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long term cleanliness of an establishment."