The Kansas Department of Agriculture is working to improve and clarify with inspectors its food safety standards after The Topeka Capital-Journal pointed out some inconsistencies in its enforcement.

“Quality and consistency are two of our biggest priorities,” said Adam Inman, assistant program manager in the department’s food safety division. “We always take opportunities to improve whenever we can.”

The discrepancies might seem technical — down to the difference between the two types of critical violations — but for restaurants, that technicality can mean the difference between a year-long break from inspections and a follow-up visit in two weeks.

Follow-up inspections are important because they can start the legal process. One failed follow-up visit leads to a summary order. A second can result in fines.

Also, The Topeka Capital-Journal every two months runs a slideshow featuring the restaurants that recently required a follow-up visit. That kind of publicity is bad for restaurants, especially when people look only at the number of violations and not the content, said Lee Atwood, owner of Big’Uns Grill, 1620 S.W. 6th.

“The general person doesn’t know what a foundation violation is,” he said. “That makes a restaurant look bad.”