It’s me. I am the one who makes you think twice about eating at your favorite restaurant.
Six months ago, my editor, Kim Robertson, asked me to start writing a weekly story about the Jefferson County Health Department food establishment health inspection scores. I was not pleased.
My editor felt people would want to know about the scores Jefferson County restaurants and other facilities serving food receive during those inspections.
At the time, I felt like residents who wanted to know could just go to the Jefferson County Health Department web page, click a few buttons and search for the restaurants they cared about. Scoring food establishments and posting them online is something the Health Department started in 2024.
The county has more than 950 permitted food establishments, and the Health Department has nine health inspectors. They typically inspect 40-50 food establishments a week.
The very first week’s report – which included information about inspections at 52 establishments – took me six hours to write. There was a lot of clicking and a lot of downloading of PDFs with some startling reports and scores.
The second week took less time as I had figured out a process. That’s when I started to admit to myself that the boss was right – the reports were interesting and readers should know if an establishment isn’t doing everything it can to keep the community safe.
About the time we starting publishing the weekly stories about the inspections, the Sonic restaurant in De Soto temporarily shut down due to an infestation of roaches, and that was the talk of the town for days.
Since coming up with the scoring system, Health Department officials have emphasized that people need to look at more than just the scores. People need to look at the types of violations. There are three: priority violations that directly contribute to foodborne illness risk; priority foundation violations that indirectly contribute to foodborne illness risk or enable priority violations; and the least serious of the three, core violations that are related to general sanitation and good retail practices.
Twelve core violations aren’t as serious as two priority violations, and it took me a few weeks to understand this.
Don’t get me wrong, the scores can indicate problems, and when I’m writing the story each week and see that a restaurant gets a particularly low score, I yell it out to the entire office.
There are a few violations that make me yell “Eww.”
“Live cockroaches.” “Dead cockroaches.” “Roaches in all life stages.”
And of course, “Rodent droppings.”
You see a theme?
When I tell my coworkers about the facilities that have evidence of bugs or rodents, they agree with me, voicing their own disgust. My weekly announcements have affected where they go to eat.
Now, I know any restaurant or facility can develop a small bug or a rodent problem, but it’s easier to have that problem if the restaurant isn’t kept clean or if there’s a gap under one of its doors or if it doesn’t have regular pest control.
Perhaps what is more disturbing is a restaurant that has food past its use-by date. Yuck!
My editor is disgusted by a hand sink that doesn’t have soap and paper towels, but in my mind, I quietly hope that the staff members are just using a different sink. Handwashing is common sense. But then again, you would think not placing a cell phone on a cutting board being used in the kitchen would be common sense.
Am I qualified to judge? No, honestly, I’m not.
If an inspector randomly visited my kitchen, they would probably find that the microwave and the can opener blade needed cleaning. Wait, how often are you supposed to clean your oven? Yeah, it’s not up to par.
Dog hair would be present on the floor despite daily vacuuming. Oh, and there would most definitely be crumbs in the toaster. Dates would not be marked on anything that’s been prepared, but with our adult son, Nick, living with us again, there’s no need since he will eat any and all leftovers before they go bad.
While my kitchen may not pass with a 100 score, know that I am constantly washing my hands and drying them with paper towels when I cook.
I think we all should be glad the Health Department spends so much time making sure businesses that serve and sell food, including restaurants; nursing homes; schools and day care centers; hotels; food trucks; etc., are doing what they should. If the inspector finds serious violations, the business has so many days to correct the violations, depending on the seriousness.
Not every Health Department in the state is as dedicated and transparent about sharing these inspection reports. Our Health Department has big expectations. I mean it has a 190-page Jefferson County Food Code. If your favorite restaurant got a 100 or even a 99, that’s something to be in awe about.
Brianne Zwiener, Health Department spokesperson, said the county’s food code is based on the 2013 FDA Model Food Code and the Missouri Food Code revised in 2013. It was implemented in 2014 and last revised in 2021. She said only two local public health agencies in Missouri meet all nine FDA Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Standards, and the Jefferson County Health Department is expected to meet all nine next year or the following year. The standards “define what constitutes a highly effective and responsive” food service regulation program.
I fully admit I now enjoy writing these food inspection reports, and I typically write them over a day or two in between other tasks. We typically post the reports online at myleaderpaper.com every Saturday. Occasionally, we will run the reports in the newspaper, but as you can imagine the summary of a week’s worth of reports takes up a bunch of space.
If you would like to check out your favorite restaurant’s last three health inspection reports, visit jeffcohealth.org/environmental and click on “View Food Establishment Health Inspection Scores.” QR codes are posted at most Jefferson County facilities that will direct you to this website.