Restaurant Report: Unveiling Local Grades

Have you ever stepped into a restaurant and could tell off the bat that you shouldn't eat there because it was blatantly dirty? Ever wonder how a restaurant is graded to ensure you don't end the day with your head in a toilet from bad product?

Well starting next week, Hazelwood Patch will feature the Restaurant Report, a column dedicated to inspections of commercial kitchens and restaurants in the area. 

We’ll inform you of the grade, the concerns and the follow-up inspections. Each week you'll find out what restaurants the Department of Health gave poor grading and which restaurants passed with flying colors.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in six people get sick from eating contaminated food annually. Furthermore, the CDC reports that the norovirus and salmonella are the most common pathogens that lead to disease with 58 percent and 11 percent, respectively, resulting in illness.

Not sure about the restaurant inspection process, check out this Patch interview with Gerrin Cheek Butler, program manager for the St. Louis County Department of Health Restaurant Inspection Program.

Butler gave insight into how inspections are performed and how they achieve their ratings: 

Patch: How often are inspections done?

Gerrin Cheek Butler: Inspections are risk based. The inspector assigns a number between 1 to 4, with the number indicating the number of times per year a food establishment will be inspected. This is based on the extent of the food preparation, the type of food handling, and past performance at the food establishment.

Patch: How does a restaurant achieve its grade?

Butler: Violations are assigned points based on severity. Those points are then subtracted from a possible 100. The grading system is as follows:

A = 100-90; B = 80-89; C = 79-70

Patch: What triggers a follow-up inspection?

Butler: Having an uncorrected violation can trigger a follow-up inspection.

Patch: How often do restaurants pass off the first time?

Butler: Ninety-five percent or more pass inspection the first time.

Patch: What does each grade say about the restaurants?

Butler: The grade says that the food establishment has a score that is within the range as noted above.

Patch: What percentage of restaurants fail inspections? What happens with those?

Butler: Only a small percentage (5 percent) fail inspection. If a food establishment fails an inspection with no violations that lead directly to food-borne illness, then we work with them to gain compliance through a compliance schedule. Violations that would lead to food-borne illness may require that a food establishment be closed until the violation is corrected.

Patch: What are some of the most common problems for St. Louis County restaurants as far as inspections?

Butler: The most common violation is lack of Hepatitis A vaccination records.

Patch: How many inspections, on average, are done each year?

Butler: Approximately 10,000.

Patch: How is the determination made to do an inspection on a currently existing restaurant? Are inspections for newer restaurants performed on a certain basis?

Butler: All food establishments are assigned a risk category as noted above.

Patch: How are inspections performed?

Butler: All inspections are done in-person visually by one of our inspectors. These inspections are surprise inspections—no forewarning is given to the establishment.