Except for the high end establishments, just about every type of restaurant these days has some form of customer self-service buffet or salad bar serving ready-to-eat foods. Even El Pollo Loco and other Mexican style restaurants allow you to pick and fill up from a choice of salsas. Asian style all-you-can-eat restaurants are another big one with many popping up in most big cities. Then there are of course the restaurants that focus entirely on buffets and salad bars.
The health and safety laws governing these displays have developed over the years to address the uniqueness of this type of set up and some of the unique hazards or risks to consumers. Noted below are most of those requirements as well as my own recommendations from years of experience inspecting restaurant buffets and salad bars: