What does Flora and Ella's, Boo Boo's Riverhouse, Log Cabin BBQ, McDonalds, Lightsey's Seafood House, The Big V, and Wendy's all have in common? Besides being local eating places visited by thousands of people every year, they also get inspected for food safety by Florida's Division of Restaurants and Hotels under the Florida Business and Professional Regulation Department.
In checking inspection reporting of local restaurants, we found some surprising results. Most of the well-known eateries in our area have all been citied for numerous serious food safety violations. The state food inspectors reports what they call "critical" violations they find on routine and surprise visits to restaurants. Critical violations are those which, if left uncorrected, are more likely to directly contribute to food contamination, illness, or environmental degradation. Examples of critical violations include poor temperature control of food, improper cooking, cooling, refrigeration or re-heating temperatures. Inspectors say many violations are corrected on the spot during inspections, while some need follow-up visits to make sure the management corrects the problems.
The food safety standards applied during inspections are science-based, and largely derived from a national model called the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Model Food Code. Unannounced routine inspections of operating food service establishments assure that sanitation and safety practices are adhered to. Inspectors also make visits to restaurants after consumer complaints. Regular inspections can be made as little as once yearly to numerous times if critical violations are found and not remedied. In our area it seems most regular food inspections were last made in June of 2005 unless there were consumer complaints or a new restaurant opened.
To see how many critical violations had been found by food inspectors at some local restaurants in the last two years see the LaBelle Area Restaurant Reviews and Hendry-Glades Area Restaurant Reviews. Readers are invited and encouraged to write their own reviews on either or both of these local websites and add any other restaurant to the review pages.
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