Kent Health inspections: Digging Down Deeper

The city of Kent Health Department performs health inspections on every restaurant in Kent multiple times each year. The number of violations issued can vary significantly, ranging from minor infractions to several critical violations for some restaurants. One aspect remains consistent; they all have had some type of violation.

According to the Kent Health Department, inspections are conducted between 1 and 4 times each year.  The number of inspections performed depends on both the restaurants menu as well as how in advance they do food preparation.

There are two different inspections performed by the health department. They are the standard inspection and Critical Control Inspection.

The Standard Inspection is unannounced while the critical control, inspection is planned in advance with the restaurant.

During the standard inspection, the health department is looking at a wide variety of things in the restaurant for possible violations said Kent Health Department Commissioner Jeff Neistadt.

“We’re looking for temperature violations, how food is being stored, if the food is properly labelled, many things,” Neistadt said.

The critical control inspection is even more thorough, essentially going from farm to table Neistadt said.

Neistadt said when violations are issued, restaurants have a limited amount of time, usually ranging between 24 to 72 hours depending on the seriousness of the violation.

Every Facility that prepares food is assigned a risk level. These are determined by the potential risk that a restaurant could pose to the publics health. A risk level I facility is allowed to serve food items such as coffee, soft drinks and some prepackaged foods. While a level IV facility is any full service restaurant preparing a wide variety of dishes. The cost of a food service license increases with each risk level.

Out of the 40 most recent health inspections completed at risk level IV facilities, excluding schools and Greek life facilities, each one had some time of violation issued during the past year.

The facility that had the fewest violations was the Prentice Dining hall located on the Kent State University main campus. It was issued zero critical violations and three non-critical violations during the last year. The restaurant Bistro on Main received the most violations during the past year, receiving 20 critical violations and 40 non-critical. Neither facility was available for comment.

While these two represent each end of the spectrum, health code violations are not uncommon for the restaurants.

Kent State Professor of hospitality management Mandy Ulicney said that some people see health inspections a negative thing, and that is not the case.

“Health inspectors sometimes get a bad rap,” Ulicney said. “What they’ll do is educate the operator on how to fix whatever problems it is that they have.”

Ulicney said most of the violations that she has witnessed have had to do with sanitation issues such as making sure surfaces are properly cleaned.

Some of the most common mistakes food service employees make include not wearing gloves when necessary, not washing hands and not following cleanliness policies closely enough.

For many restaurant employees, the only information they know about health code standards and violations comes directly from their boss or employer. It is critical that that information is passed down to everyone that works in the restaurant Lockney said.

While it is common for many restaurants to receive some type of health code violation at some point in time, it should be remembered that not every violation is a serious violation and if someone has questions about a restaurants inspection history, they can access the data from the Kent Health Department Database.