11.mar.07
Deseret Morning News (Utah)
Lee Davidson
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660201947,00.html
Inspectors were cited as saying that most local eateries work hard to follow health department rules, but some struggle, including Cafe Kim in West Jordan.
Health inspectors closed it twice for serious violations during the past two years, for a total of 11 days — the longest stretch for any local restaurant. During inspections, it also amassed four times more violation points on average than a typical full-service restaurant, the worst in Salt Lake County.
The story says that inspectors found 160 code violations there, including 25 considered "critical" — or most likely to cause food-borne illness if not fixed quickly. The violations ranged from dirty food-preparation surfaces to touching ready-to-serve food with bare hands, storing toxic materials near food and not keeping hot foods hot enough nor cold foods cold enough.
Cafe Kim did not respond to a hand-delivered letter seeking comment.
The story says that health departments will release inspection data only if someone files a formal request through state open-records laws. The requester must then pay up to $50 per hour (in Utah County) for workers to process that request, plus copying fees.
The Deseret Morning News went through that process to obtain inspection data on 5,000 eateries in Salt Lake and Utah counties, and today posts average scores for each of them online at deseretnews.com.