By Melanie Payne, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 17--Sacramento County's watchdog of sanitation and safety in restaurants conducted almost 71 percent more food safety and health inspections in 2002 than in the previous year.
Environmental Health, a division of the Environmental Management Department, inspected 6,406 restaurants, bars, fairs and school kitchens in 2002, compared to 3,748 in 2001.
Mel Knight, director of the Environmental Management Department, attributes the increase to a full staff of inspectors for the first time in years. Knight also said he will ask the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for permission to hire six new inspectors, a technician and a supervisor for environmental health.
He said the new positions are needed for the proposed increase in restaurant inspection frequency and other plans to improve the food program, such as posting inspection reports, setting up a food school and awarding certificates to exemplary facilities. The board will consider those changes at a March 11 meeting.
Like many county agencies, Knight said his department had been running with a 25 percent vacancy. Positions were available, as was money to hire, but suitable applicants were scarce.
In the Environmental Health Division -- the area with the most vacancies -- five of 12 staff positions were unfilled for years, Knight said. Even the Environmental Health Division chief position went unfilled for months, Knight said.
As a result, the department became reactive, he said, responding to complaints and not keeping up with the routine inspections that prevent problems and educate business owners.
The tide turned in late January when Richard Sanchez was hired as division chief. By late summer, the division was fully staffed.
With managers and staff in place, the Environmental Health Division was able to improve systems and develop their electronic tracking, Knight said. Managers can now get weekly reports detailing the number of inspections and their results.
The county can now provide The Bee with weekly updates of restaurant inspection reports, which readers can access at www.sacbee.com/inspections.
The division also can track restaurants that had licenses suspended for health code violations. Beginning today, The Bee will list those restaurant names and addresses monthly.
Division chief Richard Sanchez said having a full staff also has brought other changes. For example, if someone calls with a complaint that a restaurant's food has made them ill, the inspector calls the restaurant to check if there were other complaints before going to inspect.
'With additional staff, that may change,' Sanchez said, conceding that the call could be a 'heads-up' allowing the restaurant to destroy suspected food or clean before the inspector arrives.
But some restaurants, especially chains, 'are very upfront about the complaints they have received,' Sanchez said. 'We didn't view it as a warning call, we viewed it as trying to get information.'
Sanchez said he plans to change the policy, instructing inspectors to make unannounced inspections after receiving food-borne illness complaints from the public.
Thomas Peacock, author of 'Is it Safe to Eat Out?,' said calling to investigate a complaint is ineffective.
'With a restaurant everyone can start scrubbing,' he said. 'If you have something that you thought was suspect and the inspector wants to take samples, you won't have any left by the time he gets there.'
Sacramento restaurant owner Vincent Cano said that he supports changes in the county's food program. He already requires Los Patios workers to attend food handling school, he said, and more inspections will keep people on their toes.
'We know the inspector will show up some day so we're already sitting ready,' he said.
Environmental Health has proposed posting restaurant inspection reports at restaurants. Some other counties give restaurants a health grade that's posted in restaurant windows.
The California Restaurant Association has spoken out against grading systems, but Cano said he thinks it's a good idea.
'They should post A, B, C or D. That would be more effective,' he said. 'I think the letter system would be better for the customer.'
It would also challenge restaurants that weren't rated an A to 'pick up the grade, like school,' Cano said.
Some consumers appreciate the changes in the county's food program.
'I think the proposal is a heck of a good start,' J. Stuart Soeldner, a retired UC Davis medical professor, said of increased inspections, more enforcement and other changes.
He doesn't, however, like the idea of posting an entire health inspection report at a restaurant.
Reading the reports is difficult and people won't bother, he said. 'It will be an exercise in futility.
Soeldner prefers a simpler approach: 'They have to put up a grade.'
RESTAURANT CLOSINGS:
These restaurants were closed by the Sacramento Environmental Health Division during January:
Tokio; 428 J St., Sacramento; closed Jan. 14; reopened Jan. 16; operating without a valid health permit.
New Rice Bowl II; 1407 Howe Ave., Sacramento; closed Jan. 9; reopened Jan. 9; surfacing sewage in kitchen.
Asia Express Chinese Food to Go; 7208 Florin Mall Drive, Sacramento; closed Jan. 9; reopened Jan. 21; lack of hot water.
Source: Sacramento County Environmental Management Department
To see restaurant inspection reports, go to www.sacbee.com/inspections
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(c) 2003, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
