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THE BATTALION
MONDAY. APRIL 30. 1979
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Restaurant health checks
or foul!
Eddie Dominguez 66
Joe Arciniega ’74
If you want the real
thing, not frozen or
canned ... We call It
“Mexican Food
Supreme."
Dalles location;
3071 Northwest Hwy
352-8570
By KAREN CORNELISON
Battalion Staff
WHAT GOES ON behind the
scenes at the restaurants where you
eat?
Ruth Maddox is one of the five
sanitarians working for the Brazos
County Health Department. One of
her responsibilities is inspecting re
staurants in the Bryan-College Sta
tion area and filling out a “report
card.”
The report card is actually the
Texas Department of Health Food
Service Establishment Inspection
Report. It lists 44 items, weighted
from one to five points in impor
tance, which must be evaluated as
satisfactory or unsatisfactory. A
score of 100 is the highest possible.
If, for example, the original con
tainer of a food is not properly
labeled, one point is subtracted
from 100. But if potentially hazard
ous food is not stored properly, five
points are subtracted.
“Hardly anybody gets a perfect
score,” Maddox said. There are al
ways a few minor things wrong.
“These have to be corrected by the
time we come back, usually once a
month.”
manager of her inspection, and be
gan. She opened flour bins, checked
meat cutters and can openers for
cleanliness, inspected the freezer
and refrigerator to see that foods
were covered, and even checked
the temperatures.
She watched the dishwasher in
operation and checked the water
with litmus paper for correct pH.
Next Maddox looked at the ovens,
stoves and food warmers, also
checking the temperatures of the
warmed foods, (which must be kept
at 140 degrees Fahrenheit). There
should be no accumulation of grease
which could drip on cooking food,
she said.
There must be hot and cold run
ning water in the kitchens and re
strooms. Maddox tested each sink,
flushed every toilet, and checked for
soap, towels and waste receptacles
in the restrooms.
Battalion Classifieds
Call 845-2611
MADDOX INSPECTED TWO
restaurants April 18, giving neither
one a warning. Each inspection took
approximately 45 minutes.
Restaurant A had an overall clean
appearance. Maddox informed the
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WITH A FLASHLIGHT, she
looked between boxes and under
cabinets. Those are the places
where insects and rat droppings are
usually found, she said.
Dishes were checked for dust and
cracks which are hard to disinfect.
Once the inspection was com
pleted, she filled out the form and
talked to the assistant manager.
“How did we do?” he asked.
“Pretty well,” Maddox answered.
“You got a 90.”
The points subtracted were for
relatively minor violations: the
handle of the ice scoop was resting
on the ice; there was a small leak in
the ceiling of the employees re
stroom; some of the food in the
freezer, although wrapped, was re
sting on the floor rather than on
shelves; and one employee was
smoking while washing dishes.
Restaurant B was a different
story.
THE KITCHEN DIDN’T LOOK
or smell clean. Maddox walked in,
took one look at a large screen-
covered cabinet containing several
cuts of cooked meat stored at room
temperature, and began writing.
The manager interrupted her.
“Let’s sit down and talk about
this,” he said. Maddox reminded
him she had complained about the
meat storage violation last month.
and it was supposed to have been
corrected.
“Believe it or not, that cabinet
was cleaned this morning, ” he said.
“It tends to get dirty in a hurry
when you put four to five hundred
pounds of meat in there a day.” He
explained that he only cooked
enough meat for one day, and that
all the meat being stored would be
served to customers by noon the
next day. It’s still not acceptable,
Maddox said. The manager agreed
to call the head sanitarian and work
the problem out with him.
“MOST RESTAURANTS ARE
COOPERATIVE,” Maddox said
later. “A few places I don’t like be
cause they make excuses. They
know what has to be done, they just
don’t do it.”
Maddox took the internal tem
perature of some potato salad,
which was a few degrees too warm.
The condiments were sitting at
room temperature, and a fly or two
could be seen crawling on the on
ions. Grease was caked on the oven.
There were open sacks of onions and
potatoes sitting on the floor of the
freezer.
Despite these conditions, Re
staurant B got a rating of 89 — only
one point lower than Restaurant A.
“There are a lot of things bad
about the new form we re using,”
Maddox said. Although there were
many instances of improper food
storage in Restaurant B’s kitchen, it
was only docked a few points — the
inspectors can take off only once for
the same violation.
THE MANAGERS OF THESE
two restaurants said they think the
health inspections are fair — for the
most part.
“It depends on the mood they
(the sanitarians) are in,” said the as
sistant manager of Restaurant A.
“Sometimes they’ll nitpick; some
times they’ll look at things and other
times they won’t.
“They are fair,” Restaurant B’s
manager said about health inspec
tions. “But sometimes they come at
an odd time — like right after lunch.
If they came maybe an hour after
Ruth Maddox checks the hot and cold running
water in “Restaurant B.” Despite what were
apparently much more severe violations than
lunch, it would give us a chance to
clean up.”
He also mentioned that they had
had no inspection for almost two
years at one time, but they had been
inspected about once a month for
the past three or four months. “It
strikes me kinda weird,” he said.
ami
“Restaurant A,” there was only a difference)
one point of 100 possible between the ho,
Battalion photo by Karen Comtw ft
“WE DON’T SCHEDULE a cer
tain inspection at a certain time,”
said A.C. Allen, head sanitarian. He
explained that the weather deter
mines when they inspect restaur
ants. When it’s not raining, they in
spect septic tanks. When the
weather’s bad, they inspect restaur
ants.
An inspection is conducted im
mediately, however, when a com
plaint is made against a restaurant.
In some cities, such as New York,
the health department gives a rating
— A, B, C or D — to each restaur
ant. The manager must display the
grade so his patrons know how well
the restaurant fared in an inspec
tion.
“I wish they would do it here,”
Maddox said. “Some places look
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LAUNDRY? *
Let Frannie's do it for you ^
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%Holleman at Anderson 693-658/Jr
Say what?
Nuclear safety
gobbledygook
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Listening
to Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion discussions is like trying to
follow a United Nations debate
without earphones — nothing is
in English.
For example, the five safety
criteria set by nuclear reactor
regulatory chief Harold Denton
for the Babcock and Wilcox
plants ordered shut down were
referred to in formal letters from
the utility companies as “items A
through E.”
that must be made, according to
the document?
“A) — Reviewing and upgrad
ing, as appropriate, auxiliary
feed reliability and performance
(timeliness).
“B) — Reviewing results of
FMEA analysis of ICS and taking
actions, as to reduce its likeli
hood of initiating or exacerbating
transients.
O. K., but if people saw thelaldj |
they wouldn’t want to eat
“I could say yes to that,’’sail
staurant A s assistant managd
posting a grade. But he s
thought two or three people
inspect the restaurant so tint* B
person’s bias would not detn |T
the grade. 1
Restaurant B’s manager agi k
“I think it would be fair,Ten L/
“It would make the owner* I
aware if the manager was le| H
things in shape, and mahetkpH
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ory scram based on FW tran
sients.
“D) — Reviewing detailed
analyses of plant response to
transients to effects of HPIinjet; H
tion, and return to natural cm
lation cooling.
”E) — Reviewing new
augmented standing instruct Hj
and emergency procedures
plant operators developed isi
result of A-D above.
In English, this means lit
plants are shut down until tk
comply with safety recoi:’
mendations to improve lltMu
emergency cooling water s)i 10
terns, modify certain equipj
develop better emergency pit |
cedures and improve
training.
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333 University _ 846
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