Collegiate Times

For students tiring of campus food and scarce apartment refrigerators, going out to eat can sometimes be a rare treat. However as unkempt their own apartments and dorm rooms are, most students expect their restaurant of choice to value public health and food safety. The Virginia Department of Health provides the information needed to make sure that the dining out experience is both safe and sanitary.

Through VDH, environmental health specialists in the local health departments perform a wide variety of environmental and public health functions, which include restaurant inspections. On the VDH website, anyone can view the inspection reports for restaurants, fast food operations, delis, cafeterias and other types of food service establishments inspected by local health departments.

According to the website, a person who wishes to serve food to the public is required by law to first obtain a permit from the Virginia Department of Health. Routine inspections during subsequent operation of the food service assess the operator's success in assuring that routine practices are conducted in a safe and sanitary manner.

Gary Hagy, the director of the Division of Food and Environmental Services, VDH, said that what is really looked for during restaurant inspections is the process that the food goes through "from the back door to the front door." Among the most important things looked at are personal hygiene of workers, temperature control and cross-contamination.

"Basically we are looking for any kind of practice or conditions that can adversely affect the consumer," Hagy said. "Any kind of conditions that could lead to a problem."

Hagy said that a routine inspection is conducted one to four times a year, depending on the amount of food handling and preparation. The state requires that a routine inspection be carried out at least once a year.

Along with routine inspections, there are also follow up inspections and complaint inspections. According to Hagy, a follow up inspection is usually conducted because conditions that cause concern or a number of violations were found in the routine inspection. A complaint inspection is conducted when someone issues a complaint about a specific restaurant.

"A follow up (inspection) is always focusing on the things that were marked in the previous inspections to see if they have been corrected, addressed or reduced in some fashion," Hagy said. "A complaint (inspection) focuses on the complaint."

There are two types of violations that a restaurant can receive during an inspection: a critical violation and a non-critical violation. According to the VDH website, a critical violation is a violation, which, if left uncorrected, is more likely than other violations to directly contribute to food contamination, illness or environmental degradation. Some examples include poor temperature control of food and improper cooking. Non-critical violations are not directly related to the cause of food-borne illness and, according to Hagy, are usually maintenance issues.

"We can suspend the permit immediately if we walk in and see conditions that are so bad it is an imminent threat to public health," Hagy said. "No water, no hrefrigeration, something so bad that actions have to be taken immediately. We revoke a permit if they have a record of violations that they have not attempted to correct."

All of the restaurant inspections for Montgomery County can be viewed on the VDH website. On average, most restaurants had zero to two critical violation(s). Representing the average violations, Boudreax's, located on North Main Street, was last inspected on March 9, 2006 and did not receive any critical violations.

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