Orlando Sentinel Makes It Really Easy To Learn If Your Favorite Chef Washes His Hands Regularly
Ever since we topped the list of food poisoning cases in the country, health inspection reports have been on everyone's mind. This weekend, the Orlando Sentinel unveiled a nifty restaurant inspection database that makes it incredibly easy to get inspection reports for restaurants in Central Florida. Just search by restaurant name, zip code, or city name. Of course, the state already runs a pretty good website that does much the same thing, although perhaps not in quite as clear a manner.
Scott Joseph, the Sentinel's restaurant critic, offers some helpful advice for sifting through inspections:
The inspection reports, much like a restaurant review, are snapshots of conditions present at the time of the inspector's visit.And what the reports don't tell you is that most infractions are corrected on the spot. If they weren't corrected then and there, they would be corrected soon, followed by another inspection. If not, the restaurant would not be allowed to continue operating. As Joe Friedman, spokesman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, told me, if the restaurant is open, it has been deemed safe for the public to dine in.
And with the safety and sanitary inspections, you don't get the restaurant's side of the story.
For example, the report for a certain restaurant in downtown Orlando, which will remain unnamed because the inspection was nearly a year ago, lists 39 violations, 26 critical. The details for one of those violations states "chef washed hands on top of calamari." The manager, reached at the restaurant last week, said that wasn't really the case. Instead, he said, the calamari was in a sink designated for hand washing but that no one washed his or her hands while the squid was in the sink.
Basically, don't patronize serious repeat offenders, and cut the other restaurants some slack. Although we tend to draw the line at "rodent activity." Yikes.
Restaurant Inspection Database [Orlando Sentinel]
Our critic has tips for sifting through reports [Orlando Sentinel]
Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation
Food Poisoning To Overtake Sharks As Most Popular Irrational Fear About Florida [MP: South Florida]
