08.apr.07
Daily Herald (Illinois)
Susan Sarkauskas
http://www.dailyherald.com/news/kanestory.asp?id=299441&cc=k&tc=&t=
Michael Driscoll of St. Charles is a sanitarian for the Kane County Health Department, and inspects restaurants, church kitchens, schools, day-care centers and more. Most of his day is devoted to checking places were food is prepared and served; he also does safety inspections of preschools and day-care centers seeking licenses from the state Department of Children and Family Services.
The story says there’s not much of an element of surprise when Driscoll visits: He has to schedule the visit, to make sure the owner or representative is there and the place is open. But he doesn’t tell the owner the exact time of the visit. So Driscoll can inspect in quiet before the business opens, or he might be checking during the lunch-time rush when burners are blazing and the staff is running around trying to plate up orders.
Driscoll, having washed his hands, gets out his clipboard and a 45-question “food establishment inspection report” form. A perfect score is 100 points.
Some things are more important than others, and some places are riskier than others. A gas station with a cooler of commercial kitchen-made sandwiches is less of a risk for food-borne disease than a sit-down restaurant preparing most of its meals from scratch.
Four- and five-point questions are highlighted in red; miss those, and you’ll have to correct the situation before the inspector leaves, or they can shut you down.
Score 60 or less, and you’re subject to an office hearing as to whether you get to keep serving food at all.
Driscoll’s exam begins visually. The sight of stainless-steel countertops and sinks pleases him; they are easy to keep clean and sanitized.
A quick scan: Is the place clean? Any scraps of food on the floor or chemical residue on surfaces? Does the kitchen look well-organized? A well-organized place “means the ownership expects certain things from their employees” and is enforcing that expectation, he says.
After washing his hands, he heads in to the walk-in cooler.
Temperature
As everybody knows, don’t leave meat out on the counter to defrost. What Driscoll looks for in a cooler, however, is not only that the meat is in there, but that it is stored below other foods, so that raw meat juice doesn’t drip on to them.
With a laser thermometer, he zips along checking the surface temperature of foods; those that are supposed to be cold better read 41 degrees or less.
The probe thermometer is reserved for times when he has to check an internal temperature of something.
Today, he finds another good sign: There’s not much food in the cooler, which means the restaurant is ordering closely based on production and nothing is sitting around long. A jammed walk-in cooler increases the potential for cross-contamination.
Scrub-a-dub-dub
After another hand-washing, Driscoll is on to the dish-washing area.
There are many things to check here. Is there a dish-washing machine? Is there a triple-compartment sink? Is the hot water hot enough (at least 160 degrees) and is the pressure adequate? If they are hand-washing, is the concentration of chemical in the sanitizing rinse adequate? Are the drains leading to the grease trap being cleaned so that fruit flies and other insects don’t find “safe harborage?”