Category Archives: Restaurant Inspection

86 sickened: Church-exempt day care in Alabama avoids oversight

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To coach children in Australia, you need a Blue Card.

It’s some basic check to make sure you don’t have a history of …

blues-brothers-1989-movie-still-dan-aykroyd-john-belushi-01I have a Blue Card.

I played hockey yesterday morning – I’m still sore – and was chatting with one of the league organizers while Amy came to pick me up (love her).

The organizer had been to a two-day course about Blue Card requirements for organizations, and liability, and I noted I was more concerned that the people preparing toasties – grilled cheese – in the common area at the arena on Sundays required no training in anything food safety.

Guess Queensland is sorta like Alabama that way.

As reported by the Montgomery Advertiser, it was a Tuesday afternoon, and 86 children became sick from staph bacteria at two Sunny Side Day Care Center locations. Quickly, questions arose about the day care center operations, about whether it was licensed, about why there were 323 children at two of the four locations, about what the child/adult ratio was, and whether there were any state guidelines to prevent what had happened.

Alabama is one of about a dozen states that have “church-exempt” day care centers. Sunny Side is one of them.

The centers were not licensed, and do not have to abide by any minimum state standards. They have to cooperate with the fire and health departments, but little or no oversight is mandated. Children and parents may visit unlicensed centers, but no state employees or officials do, said Calvin Moore, director of the child care division with the state department of human resources.

cowgirls.bluesThe Montgomery Advertiser investigated the history of Sunny Side Day Care Center, and it was found that Sunny Side did not meet fire safety standards, and while the center received a 98 rating on a May food inspection, they were not consistent in their food reports.

Moore said the oversight is very different for licensed day care centers than for “church-exempt” centers.

“The main difference is that there aren’t any standards for a church-exempt program,” he said.

“It’s kind of tough to call what they’re required to do as ‘standards.’ They don’t amount to minimum standards and, inherently, that’s the main problem. My office is in charge of licensure, and we can’t monitor church-exempt programs in any way. I don’t know if they are visited by the state level.”

To become “church-exempt,” day care centers have to send affidavits for each child attending the center, Moore said. But they only do that annually. They also are required in the affidavits to state that the children who are enrolled there are updated in their immunizations. But that is a self-reporting process, Moore said.

“We can only verify that they have said they have done those things,” he said. “As long as they say the day care center is part of an intricate part of the church’s ministry, then we ‘OK’ that. As long as they meet that requirement, we issue that exemption.”

Sunny Side met those standards.

The report of staph bacteria raises concerns about adherence to policies set in place for the safety and care of young children.

However, by claiming exemption under United Family Service Outreach, a religious affiliation, Sunny Side does not have to follow the rules set in place by the state’s DHR, as state-licensed day cares do.

Sunny Side was contacted, but they did not provide any comment on the findings.

Hawaii hires new vendor to build online restaurant database after spending $170k on failed system

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One year after requiring restaurants to display safety inspection placards for their patrons, and after spending nearly $170,000, the Hawaii State Department of Health is going back to the drawing board to launch a restaurant database the public can access online.

hawaiirestaurantplacardred-750xx1165-1553-18-0After three years of technical problems with a former technology contractor, the state is now working to get its data to a new vendor that will build a website that will let people search for restaurants and see their health inspection ratings.

“We were having so many problems with the previous vendor that we never opened it up,” the state Department of Health’s environmental health program manager, Peter Oshiro, told PBN.

A new multi-year agreement between Charlotte, North Carolina-based Digital Health Department Inc. and the state Department of Health to maintain, store and report electronic restaurant inspection data should be finalized within the next few days, he said.

Under the proposed agreement , the state Department of Health would pay $158,000 to create, install, set up and maintain the department’s electronic restaurant inspection and public reporting process. The department would then pay $60,000 a year for Digital Health Department to maintain the system.

“It’s going to be an open portal where the public can look up their favorite restaurant, and actually open up that restaurant’s file, where it’ll show their restaurant placard status, whether it’s green, yellow or red,” Oshiro told PBN.

Allstate using big data to help ID food problems in Chicago

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Which of the city’s 15,000 restaurants and vendors are most likely to be the site of foodborne illnesses and should be targeted for a closer look? How can the city identify which establishments likely sell untaxed cigarettes? Which trees should be trimmed to minimize damage to power lines when a storm rolls through?

allstateAllstate, the Northbrook-based insurer, is tapping big data to try to answer those questions.

Earlier this year, Chicago began using a predictive model that Allstate’s quantitative research team helped develop to improve restaurant inspections. It combines and mines data the city already collected or were readily available to more quickly identify restaurants that pose a greater risk for foodborne illness and thus help prioritize inspections.

Tom Schenk, Chicago’s chief data officer, said the city soon planned to issue its own announcement about the food-inspection data program and declined to comment further. His Twitter feed, @ChicagoCDO, on May 14 tweeted a link to a report titled “Food Inspection Forecasting: Optimizing Inspections With Analytics.” Allstate’s participation was cited in the report.

Historically, each Chicago food inspector is responsible for nearly 470 restaurants. Among those, more than 15 percent of inspections result in at least one critical violation. So random inspections might not be the best way to prevent foodborne illnesses.

Allstate’s quantitative research staffers working on the city food project included lead analyst Stephen Collins. His connections with the nonprofit Civic Consulting Alliance, which was also credited in the “Food Inspection Forecasting” report, led to the project with the city.

Initially Allstate scientists asked “what is it we want to try to predict if we were trying to build a predictive model?” recalled Smart. “The aim was to identify critical violations much sooner, so what kind of variables or information would” foreshadow risks at food establishments?

In 2013, Chicago also began monitoring Twitter for posts that include the words “food poisoning” by people who identify themselves as Chicagoans. That initiative continues, Schenk recently told WBEZ.

UK coffee shop hit with £40K fine for hygiene offences

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A Berkshire coffee shop has been fined almost £40,000 for breaches of food safety and hygiene.

coffeaThe owners of Coffea in Thames Street in Windsor were sentenced for 13 offences relating to food safety, hygiene, and health and safety matters.

Inspectors found kitchen areas were dirty, with build-up of grease and food debris, and had not been cleaned for a considerable time.

The premises had internal structural damage to floor and wall tiles and splash guards, meaning they could not be cleaned and had accumulated dirt.

A food store room had a damaged ceiling, meaning dirt and shedding particles could contaminate food.

There was a build-up of grease and dirt on window openings in the kitchens, which also failed to prevent the entry of insects.

Food was at risk of contamination from rodents, with evidence of gnawed shell eggs and pasta; entry points found in ceiling holes and droppings discovered on store room shelves.

There were no management systems in place to ensure rodent control, stock rotation, food temperature control or food room maintenance and cleanliness.

The inspectors said there was imminent danger to the health of both customers and staff – and the director of owning company Shabaneh Ltd, Fred Yaghoubi, agreed to voluntarily close the premises.

Jim’s Burgers in California shut down after repeated health threats

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Raw chicken and meat patties stored at unsafe temperatures, a clogged floor sink with standing water and dead cockroaches were discovered at Jim’s Burgers in Pico Rivera during an inspection that ultimately led to the restaurant’s permanent closure last month.

jim's.burgersLos Angeles County Public Health Department officials said the June 17 decision to revoke the burger restaurant’s health permit was the result of repeated food temperature violations — a major public health threat — but over the course of six prior routine inspections the restaurant at 4549 S. Rosemead Blvd. never had its permit suspended for those problems.

“The Department has worked in earnest with the owners to rectify repeat violations due to unsanitary conditions,” said county health officials in a statement issued less two weeks before revoking the restaurant’s permit.

Despite logging some of the highest health code violations in the county, the restaurant was only closed once for failing to comply with letter grade posting requirements under a system that allows too many facilities to operate with unsafe and unsanitary conditions and misleads the public about what’s actually going on behind kitchen doors, according to a Los Angeles News Group review of 21 months of food facility inspection data.

France goes QR code in Paris and Avignon

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For every food hygiene official control, an inspection report is issued and indicates if the restaurant is compliant with food hygiene regulations. These official controls are here to ensure that food placed on the market is safe to eat. In case of non-compliances, corrective actions must be taken by the person who owns or manages the business.

qr.code.rest.inspection.gradeArticle 45 of the newly enacted French Law on the future of agriculture, food and forestry specifies that the results of official controls shall be made public in accordance with modalities which will be laid down by specific regulations, this is the transparency initiative.

This means food businesses’ compliance with the legal requirements will be visible to anyone, for the benefit of consumers but also of food business operators. That initiative will be a strong incentive for the food industry to continuously improve the sanitary conditions prevailing in their establishments, and will consequently allow them to be rewarded with positive outcomes of official controls.

Now the operators can download a QR-Code to display voluntarily on their storefront vitrine about this scheme. This QR-Code will be also given by the inspection services.

Restaurant grading: 15 years in Toronto, 5 years in New York

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It’s just a snapshot in time, but it’s a minimal tool to hold food providers accountable.

jake.gyllenhaal.rest.inspection.disclosureThe New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that restaurants are performing better on inspection and are cleaner than ever:
• Nearly 60% percent of restaurants now earn an A on their initial inspection;
• Letter grading has vastly diminished the public health risks associated with dining out; there has been a 23 percent drop in violations from the peak in 2012; and,
• 91 percent of New Yorkers approve of restaurant grading, 88 percent use grades in making their dining decisions and 76 percent feel more confident eating in an A-grade restaurant.

1 dead, 248 sick from Salmonella at Tarheel Q

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One person has died in connection to the Salmonella outbreak at Tarheel Q, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

tarheel.qA total of 248 cases have been identified as of Wednesday.

According to DHHS, of the 248 cases:

55 percent are male

41 percent are between the ages of 20 and 49

20 percent have visited their provider

13 percent have visited the emergency department

6 percent have been hospitalized

1 death has been identified

Since the outbreak, six people have filed lawsuits against the restaurant.

Tarheel Q, located on Highway 64 West in Davidson County, re-opened Wednesday morning.

 

Pay attention when staff barf: 96 sickened from Cowfish in NC

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At least 96 people were sickened during the Norovirus outbreak at The Cowfish restaurant in early June, according to county health department records obtained by the Observer.

norovirusThe records, obtained through a public records request, provide the fullest account yet of the extent of the illnesses at the popular SouthPark sushi and burger bar.

Records show one Norovirus case was confirmed by a state Department of Health and Human Services laboratory. Ninety-five others were deemed “probable” by health officials. Just one person reported visiting a hospital.

The outbreak prompted the restaurant to close twice, once on June 5 and again on June 10. It reopened June 16.

Cowfish owner Alan Springate, responding by email to questions from the Observer, said his staff began to suspect a problem late in the day on Friday, June 5, when a customer reported some members of his party had become ill in the preceding two days.

Wednesday and Thursday of that week, two other guests had reported illnesses, but the restaurant had suspected a problem with a food item, calamari, which both guests had consumed. Cowfish removed the item from its menu and contacted its suppliers.

The person reporting on June 5 had not consumed calamari, though. At that point, “we began to consider the possibility that we were dealing with something other than a food issue,” Springate wrote.

After the Cowfish posted news of its closing on Facebook June 6, others began coming forward to report they’d been sickened. The restaurant contacted each of them and shared details with the health department, Springate said.

By the time the restaurant knew something was amiss on June 5, at least nine of the restaurant’s roughly 140 employees had been sickened, according to a report by state health inspector Nicole Lee. The first fell ill May 31, she wrote.

Springate’s email said that while some employees had called in sick, “nothing raised a red flag.”

“It’s critical to understand that although we now know we were experiencing an uptick in illness, many employees had not yet notified us because they were not scheduled to work,” he said.