Food Inspections Aim to Ensure Public’s Safety

It doesn’t take much to cause foodborne illness at a restaurant or food establishment.

All it takes is one employee who doesn’t wash his hands. A piece of meat undercooked, or not properly stored or cooled. A failing piece of equipment, such as a dishwasher or freezer. Health departments have the duty to protect the public’s health and to make sure restaurants and other places that provide food follow proper safety principles.

Registered sanitarians at the La Crosse County Health Department inspect restaurants and food places and issue food safety violations.

Violations are important measures to judge if a restaurant or food vendor is safe over time, said Jim Steinhoff, a La Crosse County Health Department sanitarian.

So how safe are the restaurants and food places in La Crosse County? That depends, according to the health department’s three food inspectors.

The health department has no "worst of the worst" list or top 10 most-unsafe places in the county, and it does not issue grades.

"Our job is not to compare and judge," said Steinhoff, a county health department inspector for more than 21 years. "Our job is to look for violations and then work with the food manager to correct them. Our job is to protect the public’s health and make sure these places are safe."

–To check out the La Crosse County Health Department’s restaurant inspection database, click here.

–To see a slideshow of photos the department has taken of egregious violations, click here.

Annual inspections

At least once a year, the health department inspects more than 500 food places in the county, including restaurants, bars, schools, grocery and convenience stores, and hospitals. Inspectors also check on more than 125 public complaints a year.

Inspection reports are public record, but the public rarely requests to see them. Inspectors often are asked their opinion about a restaurant or a food place but said they don’t make recommendations or judgments.

So how do we judge food places by their violations?

Steinhoff said it takes only one major risk-factor violation to cause foodborne illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified five major risk factors that cause 95 percent of all foodborne illness — unsafe sources, inadequate cooking, improper holding temperature, cross-contamination and personal hygiene.

In fall 2005, the health department began focusing on those five major risk factors. Two-thirds of the inspections since then had at least one major risk-factor violation.

Sam Welch, a La Crosse County food inspector, said four or five total violations can signal a problem. Between 25 percent and 35 percent of all food inspections in La Crosse County since September 2005 found that many violations.

Doug Schaefer, another food inspector, said he thinks five to seven violations indicate problems; about 15 percent to 25 percent fell into this category.

All three inspectors agree that 10 or more violations means the business or establishment has significant problems to fix. Forty-six inspections since September 2005 had 10 or more violations.

Steinhoff said it’s important to look at the number of major risk-factor violations, even if the total is not as high.

"You can go through some inspections, and places have seven or eight, and almost all are major risk-factor violations," he said. "That’s a problem."

More than 36 percent of the inspections had none or only one violation.

A public snapshot

Food inspection data online will give the public a snapshot of a restaurant or food place, Steinhoff said. The data dates back to September 2005.

"For the first time, people can look at both the total and most serious violations, and more importantly, they can look at the trend," Steinhoff said. "If an establishment has many serious violations year after year after year, you can make a pretty sound judgment how serious management takes food safety."

Suzanne Tanke, who teaches restaurant manager certification courses at Western Technical College, said she finds any violation unacceptable. She said customers have to be on guard and be assertive.

"For customers, if the restrooms are not clean and your hot food is not hot, I’d get up and leave," Tanke said. "It’s a red flag about how all food is cooked, and how the place is managed. Nine out of 10 times, the problem is temperature."

Steinhoff said it is unusual to shut down a food establishment for a few days. "We do it maybe four or five times a year," he said.

He said it is rarer to go to court to get compliance.

"We try not to close anyone down," Steinhoff said. "We want to work with the manager on options to correct violations. Sometimes the violations are taken seriously and other times not."

He said he closed food operations at one La Crosse bar/restaurant because it continued to serve food after the refrigerators stopped working.

"It was a very unsafe situation, with major food temperature problems that put customers in potential grave danger," Steinhoff said. "It was a mess."

About a half-dozen foodborne illnesses are confirmed each year in La Crosse County, Steinhoff said, but the inspectors open 20 to 30 food or waterborne investigations every year.

He said only 1 in 25 foodborne illnesses are reported to the health department.

"Most people don’t think of food when they’re ill, and unless they pinpoint the specific food going back for three days, and the doctor gets a stool culture, it’s difficult to confirm," Steinhoff said.

But sometimes it’s obvious — such as 700 people falling ill after eating turkey at a Mother’s Day buffet in La Crosse in the early 1990s, Steinhoff said.

"The turkeys were not refrigerated enough, and it became a huge outbreak," he said. "I think that goes to show you that we can’t take food safety seriously enough."

SAMPLES OF COMPLAINTS, 2007-08

–10 to 20 cockroaches observed in food bar area.

–Spatula used for raw and cooked chicken.

–Dirty towels, spitting by owner.

–Spoiled orange juice.

–Blood on hamburger buns.

–Metal in french fries.

–Grease spilled in alley.

–Food past dates.

–Dried blood on towels.

–Beer tap cleaner not rinsed.

–Dog in restaurant; employees petting it.

–Moldy buns.

Source: La Crosse County Health Dept.

Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8227.

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