Restaurant inspections protect public

About every six months, a sanitarian from the Marietta City Health Department conducts an inspection at the Busy Bee Restaurant on Gilman Avenue in Marietta.

And although the sanitarian always visits the restaurant without warning, Georgann Wade, co-owner of the restaurant, said she's always happy to see him or her coming.

"We're glad to have them here," she said. "It keeps us on our toes."

Sanitarians with the Marietta and Belpre health departments conduct inspections at food service operations within their respective city limits. The Washington County Health Department inspects all other food service operations in the county.

The sanitarians fill out a report each time they conduct an inspection, and the reports are a matter of public record.

Wade said she likes the fact that the general public has access to this information.

"I think the public needs to know when they walk into a restaurant what they're getting into," she said.

During the most recent inspection that was conducted at the restaurant, on April 14, a sanitarian discovered that a light shield over a prep table was cracked, which is a non-critical violation.

"That was something we did not notice," Wade said. "They can find little things maybe we don't see and we can correct it quickly."

Kelly Miller, a sanitarian with the Marietta City Health Department, explained that violations either fall into the critical or non-critical category, and each food service operation falls into one of four risk levels, depending upon the activities of the operation. The higher the level, the higher the potential risk to the public.

Food service operations that sell pre-packaged food fall into the risk level I category, while the risk level IV category includes catering operations and establishments which reheat food or serve to a high-risk clientele, such as elderly individuals in a health care facility.

Miller said there are 150 food service operations in the city limits that the city health department inspects, and each establishment is inspected about every six months, at a rate of about 30 inspections a month.

She said if only non-critical violations are found, the department does not send a sanitarian back for a follow-up inspection.

"If the violations aren't critical and we don't need to go back right away, they just need to correct them before we come back in six months," she said.

Critical violations require a follow-up inspection, either the same day or at a later date, depending on the severity of the violations, Miller said. She said a lack of hot running water is one example of a critical violation.

Josh Lane, a sanitarian with the county health department, said the county is responsible for inspecting 170 food service operations, and they're each inspected at least twice a year.

But, he said, inspections aren't necessarily conducted on a six-month schedule.

"I surprise them," he said. "That's the way I like it - I want them to be doing the same thing they're doing all the time."

Lane said it's been his experience that most critical violations can be taken care of before he leaves a facility.

"It could be detrimental to public health, so we want to ensure it's corrected as quickly as possible," he said, noting that the Ohio Department of Health recommends that critical violations be handled this way whenever possible.

Lane added that the department doesn't have the authority to hand out fines, but if a facility is continually non-compliant, its operator may be required to appear before the county board of health and explain why the violations continue to occur.

The sanitarian for the city of Belpre, Jack Pepper, also serves as the environmental health director in Athens County. He said the city contracts with the county, and he's only in Belpre once a week.

There are about 30 establishments in the city, and they're inspected about every six months, he said.

But, on the rare occasion that a complaint is reported, an investigation is conducted right away.

"The city's so small that the good thing is I'm on a first-name basis with all the operators in the city, and that's good because I build relationships with them," Pepper said. "The flip side is, a lot of times there's no real watchdog in place because everybody knows everybody, so I get very few complaints in Belpre."

Miller and Lane said they don't receive many complaints, either, but they, too, investigate all complaints in a timely manner.