Florida Health Inspections Not Up To Par
There's been a lot of uproar over the state of Florida's health inspections, and to be honest, it's beginning to bore us just a little. The latest news comes from a progress report by the Legislature's Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (with such a long name, we're sure the committee actually accomplishes very little). We'll sum it up for you in easy-to-digest bullet points:
• The Division of Hotels and Restaurants, which conducts the restaurant inspections, has made improvements in terms of boosting staff and making the website more consumer-friendly, but more still needs to be done.
• The department needs more money. It can either a) beg the legislature for more money or b) charge offending restaurants re-inspection fees.
• The committee is advising that the agency add 39 new inspector positions for 2008-2009.
So here's a question for all of you readers: have any of you ever tried to look up a restaurant's health inspection records? And how important is this information when you're making a decision to eat out? We have to admit that we don't really think about these things much, probably because we're young, healthy, and blessed with a strong stomach. Let us know what you think!
Florida regulators' oversight of restaurants still falls short [Sun-Sentinel]
Comments
When I found out that one of the restaurants I frequent actually got closed for roach problems I've axed it entirely from my rotation. There's no excuse for that. And the arguments that maybe the inspector came on an off day are bogus. If the place is filthy and infested it's probably like that with and without an inspector showing up. I really wish there was a grading system like in L.A. because comparably, restaurants here are filthy.
Posted by: L2M | October 31, 2007 11:31 AM