Tougher Rules Imposed For Restaurant Inspections Old Methods Allowed For High Test Scores But Unsafe Restaurant Food

In Idaho restaurants, a high health-inspection score does not necessarily mean safe food.

Food in restaurants that score high on inspections can still make people sick, but officials say a recent strengthening of state standards will soon start taking hold.

An outbreak of E. coli bacteria sickened at least 13 people who ate at a Chili’s Restaurant in Boise in mid-September. In early 1993, an E. coli outbreak infected 15 people who ate at Boise Jack In The Box restaurants.

In both cases, the restaurants did well on surprise health inspections under a scoring system that remained essentially unchanged for more than a decade.

“The system really didn’t get to the heart of the problems and it caused people to focus on the minor issues instead of the critical,” said Tom Turco, director of environmental health for the Central District Health Department.

As of July 1, more stringent health-inspection standards took hold.

Food-handling standards for restaurants are fairly constant across the nation. However, there is some variation in how states enforce the standards.

In general, inspectors look for “critical items” and “non-critical items.” Critical items include problems like not keeping food at the correct temperature, insects in the kitchen, failure of employees to wash hands and using the same utensils for raw meat and raw vegetables.

Non-critical items include insufficient lighting or ventilation, lack of hair restraints and low water pressure.

Under the old system in Idaho, a restaurant started an inspection with 100 points and lost up to five points for a critical item and up to two points for a non-critical item. A grade of 80 was considered failing, although restaurants were rarely closed. Inspectors usually conducted follow-up visits.

Turco said that caused restaurateurs to focus on their scores, even though a score of 92 might include two serious violations. Also, if inspectors found multiple instances of the same violation, they could only deduct points for one violation.

Turco said the new system makes restaurant operators focus more on the violations.

Restaurants now start out with a score of zero. An inspector adds a point for each critical violation, and can count each time the same violation is found. Inspectors conduct a follow-up visit if there are serious violations. If they have to make a second follow-up visit, the restaurant must pay an $80 fee to the state.

Dave Hand, executive director of the Idaho Hospitality and Travel Association, agreed that the new regulations should help reduce food illness.

“If you increase the level of training and awareness, you should have a much safer food supply,” he said. “I think it’s a major step forward.”