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How Restaurant Health Inspections Work

By: Dave Roos

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Author's Note: How Restaurant Health Inspections Work

I'm not one of those people who pays attention to restaurant inspection scores. I'm much more interested in what's on the menu — and what restaurant critics and public reviewers say about the food — than what's posted in the front window. That said, if you're really curious about how much the management cares about food safety, I think the state of the bathroom speaks volumes. If the boss cares enough to clean the bathroom every hour, that displays a certain attention to detail that likely crosses over into the kitchen. If the bathroom is nasty, who knows what else might be "crossing over" into the kitchen ...

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More Great Links

  • Chapman, Ben, Associate professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. Telephone interview conducted on Aug. 30, 2017
  • Florida Department of Business & Profession Regulation. "Division of Hotels and Restaurants Inspection Frequency." (Sept. 25, 2017) http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/hr/inspections/Frequency.html
  • FoodSafety.gov. "Safe Minimum Cooking Temperatures." (Sept. 25, 2017) https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html
  • Fuchs, A.W. "The U.S. Public Health Service Restaurant Sanitation Program." August 1942. (Sept. 25, 2017) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1527116/pdf/amjphnation00710-0064.pdf
  • Hassiotis, Nick, General manager of Foundation Social Eatery. Telephone interview conducted on Sept. 6, 2017.
  • Peterson, Alison, Supervisor in the Food Safety and Marijuana Section within the Public Health Inspections Division of the Denver Department of Environmental Health. Telephone interview conducted on Sept. 18, 2017
  • Richards, Edward. "The History of Public Health Authority." Louisiana State University Law Center. (Sept. 25, 2017) https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/map/TheHistoryofPublicHealthAuthority.html
  • Simmons, Andrew. "Gastronomic Bigotry." Slate. June 6, 2014 (Sept. 25, 2017) http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2014/06/ethnic_restaurants_and_food_poisoning_the_subtle_racism_of_saying_chinese.html
  • U.S. Public Health Service and the Food and Drug Administration. "Food Code." 2013. (Sept. 25, 2017) https://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/UCM374510.pdf
  • http://ga.healthinspections.us/_templates/22/food_2015/_report_full.cfm?fsimID=727095&domainID=22