You Just Can't Leave Here Without Finding Something Wrong!

It was a filthy kitchen. Rotted food was piled on the counters. Grease from a thousand fried meals coated all the “clean dishes”. Roach poop looked like cake sprinkles on the pots and pans. Disgusted by the scene, I begin to write the observations on my inspection form. And that is when it happened. A condescending voice from behind bellowed, “You just can’t leave here without finding something wrong”.

It’s one of the most common things I hear during inspections and it irritates me every time. When I hear it, I know the person is not taking the inspection seriously and probably will not permanently correct the problem. Unfortunately, health inspections are too often ignored, viewed as an intrusion of big government into a busy day and part of a negative process designed to nitpick and humiliate the people working in the facility. The places where I hear this statement are also too often where diseases of environmental origin are born and thrive.

As an inspector, I can document a violation, fine or even close a facility temporarily. However, it is the people working in them who truly hold the power to prevent foodborne illness. But how can they do that if they don’t care? I think the solution to this dilemma requires an effort on all parts and rests with changing the perception of the health inspection. I offer the following suggestions to fellow health inspectors, the inspected facility and public regarding on how we can all work together to use the health inspection process to promote environmental health:

To My Fellow Health Inspectors
Remember your primary responsibility is stopping potential health problems in a facility before somebody gets sick. Don’t be a “checklist inspector”. Be an educator. Inspectors should not just cite the code violation. They need to explain the public health science behind the code requirement, describe how germs move through the environment and how the code requirements create barriers to that movement. They must also show the business owner/staff the real cost (e.g., lawsuits, business reputation, business closures) of the disease that the facility’s violation could potentially cause.

To The Business/Facility Owner
Don’t look at your inspection as just some government intrusion. You needed a permit to run your business. That permit entitles you to an independent evaluation of your business sanitation practices. It also entitles access to an environmental health professional for advice on how to resolve that problem and prevent others. Don’t waste that opportunity for outside feedback. When the health inspector gives you the inspection form, read it and ask "why". Discuss your business practices and policies, how they could be contributing to the problem and ask for advice on how to permanently resolve issues. Build a partnership with your inspector. This open line of communication will be critical if your business is ever implicated as the source of a disease.

To The Public
Every time you eat in a restaurant, drop your kid off at daycare or place a loved one in a nursing facility, you are endorsing their sanitation practices. Don't unknowingly endorse bad sanitation practices. Ask for the facility's inspection report and inform yourself about the potential risks a their sanitation practices may pose. However, be advised that any place can have a bad inspection day, so don’t judge a place based upon one report. However, it’s been my professional experience that facilities either learn from their violations and permanently correct them or they flat don’t care. Make it known that good sanitation is important to you by frequenting those establishments that prioritize and implement good sanitation and food safety practices and ignoring those who don't.