The Day I Lost My Appetite - No Really!

For a long time, I've read restaurant inspection reports in the Terre Haute and Bloomington newspapers on eateries in those cities. I've also been told that restaurants in St. Louis must display a small sign at the front of their establishment, showing a letter grade (A, B, C…) assigned from the local health inspector. So, the other day -- well -- curiosity killed the cat. I was curious to see what was going on in Greene County -- and more specifically those food places in Linton -- so I went to find out at the county's health department.

I must admit, this endeavor just started out as a personal curiosity, but with what was found, I felt it made for a good blog post too. In fact, I think it would be irresponsible not to do a post with what was found… or not found.

It seems that requesting these public records is somewhat of a novelty, as I was told I was one of the first the office staff can remember coming into their office to take a peak. Since I had to tell them which restaurants I wanted to see by name, I jotted down a list of 23 places where I knew they served prepared food in Linton. (After all of that brainstorming, I now realize that I forgot at least three places, ones that I have eaten in only a time or two over the past several years, so they just didn't come to mind. Oh well!)

In any event, I was pretty surprised at the lack of information in the 23 files pulled that day. Most had the past five years or so of annual permit applications in the files, where they must submit a written form, a small fee, and a copy of their completion certificate of the standard food safety training. Aside from that, I found few actual health inspection reports. Those that were found were fairly dated, as you'll see below. Only 3 of the 23 establishments had been inspected in 2007, and none were found with a 2008 date.

(To be fair, the new County Sanitarian has been in her position only a few months. According to the Daily World article a few months ago, she started in her position in about November of last year. All together, she said in a letter to me that Greene County has 128 food permits issued currently. There is also a lot to do in her position, not only with health inspections, but septic tank permits and those inspections, among others. She also said they are working on placing the health inspection reports online in the future, so that will be good.)

Listed below are the 23 establishments I inspected the records for, and I've listed all of the inspection reports found in file, if critical violations were found and how many, number of customer complaints in file, and follow up date(s) if they were documented. I didn't bother with non-critical violations, but only listed the number of critical violations found. Critical violations that I saw included: numerous flies and cockroaches found, sanitizer concentration not adequate for dishes, unmarked chemicals found, heavy-duty degreaser stored next to open box of bacon bits, used ashtray found on food prep table, etc.

To protect the innocent, as they say, I've simply labeled the food establishments by number, not by name. If you want to know all of the specifics, go over to the health department and inspect the records because they are public records, which are open to inspection from the general public upon request during normal business hours. You will have to fill out a form and pay 50 cents per copy if you choose to copy anything in the files though. Also, they don't like visitors at noon when they're taking lunch themselves.

Keep in mind that some inspections are so old that completely new crews may be employed by now, and an in at least one instance, I know there's been a change in ownership.

Establishment 1: Last inspected 04/01/07 - No critical violations; No complaints in file.

Establishment 2: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 3: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 4: Last inspected 08/28/06 - 1 critical violation; No complaints in file.

Establishment 5: Last inspected 10/07/04 - 4 critical violations; 2 complaints in file dated 10/02/03 & 09/29/04.

Establishment 6: Last inspected 02/28/06 - No critical violations; No complaints in file.

Establishment 7: Inspected 04/08/04 - 1 critical violation; Last inspected 02/08/06 - 1 critical violation. No complaints in file.

Establishment 8: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 9: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 10: Last inspected 09/15/05 - 8 critical violations; 1 complaint in file dated 08/11/05.

Establishment 11: Inspected 07/14/05 - No critical violations; Last inspected 05/16/07 - 3 critical violations; 1 complaint in file dated 01/12/06.

Establishment 12: Last inspected 08/03/04 - 5 critical violations; No complaints in file.

Establishment 13: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 14: Last inspected 04/10/07 - No critical violations; No complaints in file.

Establishment 15: Last inspected 03/25/04 - No critical violations; 1 complaint in file dated 08/05/00 -- Followed up on 08/10/00.

Establishment 16: Inspected 02/01/05 - 8 critical violations; Last inspected 06/27/06 - 2 critical violations; No complaints in file.

Establishment 17: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 18: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 19: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 20: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 21: Inspected 12/02/02 - 1 critical violation; Last inspected 09/15/04 - No critical violations; 1 complaint in file dated 09/13/04.

Establishment 22: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

Establishment 23: No inspection reports found; No complaints in file.

After all of this work, I actually didn't eat lunch the day that I went to the Health Department to view these records. While I was somewhat hungry going in the office, I lost my appetite by the time I left. How's that for a weight loss strategy? Don't worry, I'll survive.