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Online Health Inspections Offer Few Details

Posted on: Friday, 23 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Sean Adkins, York Daily Record, Pa.

Jun. 20--The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has updated its health inspection reporting process to allow quick Web-based access to reviews on local businesses, minus the details on specific violations.

Last year, the department invested $600,000 to implement a Web-based program that allows consumers to look at the state's restaurant inspection reports online. Previously, the state required its inspectors to file paper reports that were open to the public.

Now, inspectors file reports electronically. The reports are eventually posted to the state's Web site.

Currently, the department inspects 22,000 eating and drinking establishments per year, including businesses based in York County. The City of York employs its own health inspector, who enforces the Pennsylvania Food Code, a statewide standard. York City reports are not offered online, but are publicly available on paper.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture launched its health inspection report Web site Jan. 1, said Chris L. Ryder, a department spokesman.

Reviews on the site give the purpose for a specific inspection and tell if a business is in compliance with the Pennsylvania Food Code. And that's about it.

Specific violations commonly listed on the old paper versions of inspection reports are not included in reviews filed to the Internet.

Anthony R. Delzingaro of Hanover said, in the past, he would regularly read printed inspection reports and inform his friends of particular violations. Delzingaro questioned the vagueness of the online reports.

"If a restaurant is having a problem, fine, but what is the problem?" he said. "I understand them putting the reports on the Net, but shouldn't the reports be more complete?"

That is not to say that inspectors are not paying attention to health-related violations.

State inspectors now carry tablet-sized personal computers with electronic forms that break inspections into two main categories -- risk factors and good retail practices. Risk factors are improper practices identified as the most prevalent contributing factors of foodborne illnesses, Ryder said.

An inspector, for example, would check if workers have kept their hands clean and properly washed. If so, the inspector would check that the restaurant was in compliance.

A business must pass all 27 risk factors, Ryder said. One failed risk factor can lead to a business not being in compliance and to further inspections.

The inspector has the opportunity to enter comments on a particular violation in the report, Ryder said.

Those more-detailed reports are available to the public when requested, he said.

"We know that people are looking to us to make sure that food is handled safely and properly, and the department is doing everything it can to make sure the state's food supply is wholesome and safe," said Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Secretary Dennis Wolff in a recent statement.

Joe Whitehead, a former state health inspector and owner of Smokey Joe's Barbeque Grill in West Manchester Township, said he believes the department's new health-reporting system helps to benefit business owners.

Whitehead left his job with state in 2003 to open Smokey Joe's Barbeque Grill.

"It's a way to get the problems fixed without killing the business owner," he said. "As a business owner, it doesn't matter to me if the results are online or not. I don't have anything to hide."

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To see more of the York Daily Record, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ydr.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, York Daily Record, Pa.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: York Daily Record

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