18.mar.07
Associated Press
Libby Quaid
WASHINGTON -- Millions of children, according to this story, eat in school cafeterias that don't get the twice-yearly health inspections required by Congress to help prevent food poisoning.
Agriculture Department data obtained by The Associated Press was cited as saying that schools are supposed to get two visits from health inspectors every year, but one in 10 schools didn't get inspected at all last year, and 30 percent were visited only once.
Ken Kelly, attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group that has studied cafeteria safety, was quoted as saying, "Do you want to go to a restaurant that hasn't been inspected?"
Fewer inspections don't necessarily translate into more cases of food poisoning, "but it contributes to all the other little things — temperatures, rat droppings — to all those things that could make your child sick," Kelly said.
Common violations in cafeterias involve wrong temperatures — failing to keep hot food hot enough or cold food cold enough — or things like having an open Dumpster outside the cafeteria.
The story goes on to say that according to the agriculture department, of 94,132 schools reporting in the 2005-06 school year:
# Ten percent, or 9,498 schools, were not inspected at all.
# Twenty-nine percent, or 27,184 schools, were inspected once.
# Sixty-one percent, or 57,450 schools, were inspected at least twice.
No data was reported by 7,309 schools.
The story notes that when Congress doubled the inspection requirement, lawmakers didn't provide any money for more inspections.