How often do food inspectors come around?

[TimC]

I admit it. I am a Kitchen Nightmares junkie. In fact, everything on the BBC America with Gordon Ramsey, I must stop and watch. I even watch the KN UK version on Youtube since they don't bleep the swear words. Do you see these kitchens filth though? He's not even digging deep and moving fridges...it's just surface dirt and oil that hasn't been changed since the 80s. It is amazing that food inspectors don't shut these down long before Ramsey can get there. I figure it must be at least once a year. Do they even walk in the places?

[HowboutthemCowboys]

I admit it. I am a Kitchen Nightmares junkie. In fact, everything on the BBC America with Gordon Ramsey, I must stop and watch. I even watch the KN UK version on Youtube since they don't bleep the swear words. Do you see these kitchens filth though? He's not even digging deep and moving fridges...it's just surface dirt and oil that hasn't been changed since the 80s. It is amazing that food inspectors don't shut these down long before Ramsey can get there. I figure it must be at least once a year. Do they even walk in the places?

Obviously Detlef will have the answers for you. I do know that in N.C. , all restaraunts have a rating that shows their, I believe, cleanliness score. Love that idea and wish it were that way here in Pa.

That stuff on those shows is about enough to make you sick.

[Big John]

Obviously Detlef will have the answers for you. I do know that in N.C. , all restaraunts have a rating that shows their, I believe, cleanliness score. Love that idea and wish it were that way here in Pa.

That stuff on those shows is about enough to make you sick.

A Detlef health inspection thread

[darin3]

I admit it. I am a Kitchen Nightmares junkie. In fact, everything on the BBC America with Gordon Ramsey, I must stop and watch. I even watch the KN UK version on Youtube since they don't bleep the swear words. Do you see these kitchens filth though? He's not even digging deep and moving fridges...it's just surface dirt and oil that hasn't been changed since the 80s. It is amazing that food inspectors don't shut these down long before Ramsey can get there. I figure it must be at least once a year. Do they even walk in the places?

 

 

Obviously Detlef will have the answers for you. I do know that in N.C. , all restaraunts have a rating that shows their, I believe, cleanliness score. Love that idea and wish it were that way here in Pa.

That stuff on those shows is about enough to make you sick.

I think it depends on the jurisdiction, and perhaps tied to state law. It's certainly at least once per year, but many jurisdictions inspect twice per year. More if the establishment ever receives a grade lower than a set level.

[Jimmy Neutron]

Like Darin said, it likely depends on the municipality. My wife's friend's hubby is a county inspector and their goal is to visit every establishment once per year. In reality, they get to most every other year and focus more frequent visits with past offenders.

[darin3]

Like Darin said, it likely depends on the municipality. My wife's friend's hubby is a county inspector and their goal is to visit every establishment once per year. In reality, they get to most every other year and focus more frequent visits with past offenders.

That's pretty scary, actually. I've submitted architectural plans to many health departments and I can't think of one that didn't require yearly health inspections.

 

A lot can happen in a year.

[detlef]

I admit it. I am a Kitchen Nightmares junkie. In fact, everything on the BBC America with Gordon Ramsey, I must stop and watch. I even watch the KN UK version on Youtube since they don't bleep the swear words. Do you see these kitchens filth though? He's not even digging deep and moving fridges...it's just surface dirt and oil that hasn't been changed since the 80s. It is amazing that food inspectors don't shut these down long before Ramsey can get there. I figure it must be at least once a year. Do they even walk in the places?

Well, I did cover some of this in that thread that BJ linked.

 

First off, Darin pretty much has it right. You get inspected 2x year unless you've gotten below a 90, then it goes to 4x for some period of time.

 

Now, here's a few more stories and why these grades aren't all they're cracked up to be.

 

I mentioned the random nature of how you lose points but that can't be stressed enough. The metric is completely flawed and, honestly, you can tell almost nothing from looking at the score.

 

I mentioned the bit about fast food v made to order but you also need to take into account whether a place does lunch or just dinner. Any place that just does dinner is way ahead of the game because inspections happen between 9am and 4pm. They say that they'll hit dinner houses during service but they never do because that means they have to work late. The place next door to mine has had it happen at night once in 3 years and they raised high hell because they were busy and chick was in the way. I told them, "Welcome to my world. Every inspection I've ever had has happened right in the middle of my lunch rush."

 

As you can imagine, it's a whole lot easier to pick up deductions here and there during service than it is during prep. You're not going to get hit for anything in the dining room unless you're a pig because everything is stocked, put away, and no waiter happened to put a creamer down somewhere for a minute or that sort of thing. In the kitchen, everything is either in the walk-in, in the oven, or being prepped. Nothing just spilled in the middle of the rush, etc. So, a safe estimate is that's worth about 4 pts right there. That's also likely the all things being equal difference between a fast food place without dishwashing and a place that actually preps food. So, right there, a place that serves lunch and actually preps their own food is starting at a 92 compared to others.

 

This brings up a very important point. In almost all cases, the vast majority of points lost have nothing to do with filth. It's things like someone's water didn't have a lid on it or was not on the bottom shelf or there was standing water somewhere or a container wasn't labeled, or something like that. I don't think I've ever lost more than 1-2 pts on any inspection for unclean surfaces.

 

That's before you take into account the random hangups for each inspector or, more importantly, the difference in how strict they are. We got a new one middle of last year. We'd finally gotten the hang of our old one, knowing what 1/3 of the list she got bent out of shape over, and then they switched us to this other guy. His big hang up is lighting. He wants me to add more flourescent ballasts in my kitchen.

 

"Did the code change recently"

"Nope, it's just that nobody but me ever measures it."

"But the Chief Inspector signed off on my plans and initial inspection with precisely this lighting."

"Doesn't matter, it's not bright enough."

 

My kitchen is f'ing bright as hell BTW.

 

"I should warn you that NC is trying to pass an code that requires all restaurants to have flourescent lighting in the dining room as well."

"You're kidding me. My customers would be pissed. What's the deduction going to be for that if it passes."

"Probably about 3 pts."

"OK, so pretty much all the nicer places that don't want to look like a cafeteria are just going to start with 97s."

"If you don't comply, yes."

 

Ironically, this dude is really, really lax on a bunch of other things. The old lady would go through nearly every stack of prep bowls, storage containers, etc to see if any of them weren't completely dry. She'd check all the water glasses for spots with this funky flashlight thing. Dude never checks that. There's other things that she made a huge deal about and I haven't seen him look at once.

 

At any rate, I'm rather certain that this is no more random and silly than any number of other sort of inspections that go on. The difference is, that the rest never get brought to the public eye like this. Restaurants are something that we all go to and we all love a train wreck, so they love to make a big deal about it.

 

On another point, Gordon Ramsey can suck a d!ck as far as I'm concerned. He makes a good living perpetuating a stereotype about psychotic chefs that is really not that accurate and also creates the feeling, as he did with Tim, that restaurants are all a bunch of crap holes. You watch that show, you start thinking that's how it is, because that's all you ever see on that show. If he walked into a place with a normal competent chef who's not throwing things at his staff or serving up rotten crap and just said, "OK, this place looks fine. Let's sit down and have a meal." That's not very good TV.

Edited January 22, 2009 by detlef

[TimC]

Thanks for the link, BJ and the in-depth analysis, Det.

 

Amazing that they don't look more at the filth and they set a limit on maximum deduction. Typical state gubment, huh. I wonder what the lowest score they've ever issued is? Maybe an 84. LOL

 

Oh, and I don't think restaurants are all crap and know Gordon only takes on the worst. We have like 4 total eateries in my hicktown and they all pretty much are crap. What made me think of this was the one "favorite" (and I should use "most convenient") place was recently sold and bought by another guy. This guy was filthy and his food looked nasty. We weren't aware of the change and it sucked. We started talking about how the health inspectors would tear him up. But I doubt he'll stay open that long. And we were laughing what it'd be like if Ramsey showed up there. It would make the best episode evah.

 

I've only been in a few dives that I've turned around and walked out of. 99% of the places are awesome and I don't feel I'm going to die from eating there.

[detlef]

Thanks for the link, BJ and the in-depth analysis, Det.

 

Amazing that they don't look more at the filth and they set a limit on maximum deduction. Typical state gubment, huh. I wonder what the lowest score they've ever issued is? Maybe an 84. LOL

 

Oh, and I don't think restaurants are all crap and know Gordon only takes on the worst. We have like 4 total eateries in my hicktown and they all pretty much are crap. What made me think of this was the one "favorite" (and I should use "most convenient") place was recently sold and bought by another guy. This guy was filthy and his food looked nasty. We weren't aware of the change and it sucked. We started talking about how the health inspectors would tear him up. But I doubt he'll stay open that long. And we were laughing what it'd be like if Ramsey showed up there. It would make the best episode evah.

 

I've only been in a few dives that I've turned around and walked out of. 99% of the places are awesome and I don't feel I'm going to die from eating there.

Sorry, didn't mean to make that implication on you. Just a sore subject. As a society, we tend to fixate on numbers even when we don't have the slightest clue of the context. Just gimme a number so I can feel like I know something.

[Perchoutofwater]

detlef, your rant reminded me of TDH inspectors which are the state inspectors that inspect construction of medical facilities. Some inspectors will come in and spend 45 minutes, primarily just making sure all your paperwork is in order, and making sure mag locks release when the fire alarm goes off. Others will spend an entire day or in some cases several, checking every duct detector, checking every gfci, etc... You never know who you are going to get until they pull up on site. When one particular one pulls up, I'll call my wife before he even makes it to the entrance of the building and tell her I'll be home late.

[detlef]

detlef, your rant reminded me of TDH inspectors which are the state inspectors that inspect construction of medical facilities. Some inspectors will come in and spend 45 minutes, primarily just making sure all your paperwork is in order, and making sure mag locks release when the fire alarm goes off. Others will spend an entire day or in some cases several, checking every duct detector, checking every gfci, etc... You never know who you are going to get until they pull up on site. When one particular one pulls up, I'll call my wife before he even makes it to the entrance of the building and tell her I'll be home late.

Like I was saying, I'm sure that all of us who are subject to inspections could share the same sorts of stories. I'm sure it's hell for you as well.

 

My experience with building and trade inspectors is that many are bitter guys who couldn't hack it as a tradesman. I mean, you can make a pretty good living as an electrician. If you're any good at it, why would you rather make $30-40K a year working as an inspector?

[darin3]

Amazing that they don't look more at the filth and they set a limit on maximum deduction. Typical state gubment, huh. I wonder what the lowest score they've ever issued is? Maybe an 84. LOL

County.

[TimC]

County.

 

What's worse than the State Gubment?

[darin3]

What's worse than the State Gubment?

With what I do for a living, it really doesn't matter. They all suck.

[dmarc117]

chicago inspections

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi...17967.htmlstory