Food control inspections are an essential control measure to ensure compliance, and it is important to understand possible patterns within inspections and their outcomes when developing food control. In this study, we analysed food control inspection reports (n = 86 223) concerning Finnish food service establishments from 2016 to 2021 to reveal temporal patterns in food control outputs and outcomes and the possible reasons behind them, and to evaluate the effects of targeted control interventions on inspection grades. The analyses revealed that the proportions of non-compliances were high throughout the study period in several inspected issues, such as temperature management (7.1–8.1%) and cleanliness (4.4–5.3%). Moreover, the inspection grades improved in only one of sixteen inspection subsections, but in five subsections the proportion of non-compliances increased significantly within the study period (linear regression analysis) and in seven subsections the inspection grades were inferior during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic years. In addition to the long-term variation in the level of non-compliances, we observed seasonal variation, with higher proportions of non-compliances in summer compared to other times. This study also showed that targeted food control interventions may influence both the number of inspections and the level of observed non-compliances. We also observed that almost half of the annual pre-planned inspections were made in the proximity of the inspection time in the previous year (44.6% within 30 days), decreasing the surprise factor of the inspections. These results can be used in developing the effectiveness of food control.