Have you eaten out lately and wondered how safe the food is at the restaurant? What about the sanitary conditions? For diners in Washtenaw County I have good news: Restaurant inspections are a click away.

Often times during the course of a sanitarian's (health inspector's) job, there are moments that are surprising, unusual and sometimes funny. A little more than a year ago, Washtenaw County Environmental Health changed its restaurant enforcement procedures to require a written risk control plan any time there is a repeated critical violation in a restaurant. A risk control plan is a tool that is used to guide the owner or operator of the restaurant to get permanent correction of the violation by having them determine what the problem is, why it is a problem and how they can control it.

It is a paradigm shift for the inspector and the restaurant operator; now instead of being told how to correct an item, the operator discusses the violation with his or her staff and determines how they will correct the violation and keep it corrected. This has been pretty effective, and I'd like to tell about a particular restaurant whose risk control plan made a world of difference.

The restaurant has been in operation for years, and is owned and operated by a couple for whom English is not their native language. The inspector and the couple communicated by a series of written materials, signage, interpretation and a bit of charades. In previous years, the restaurant had been into our office for enforcement on several repeat critical violations.

When the facility was inspected in October 2009, the inspector cited several repeated critical violations for a lack of food package integrity, improper toxic item storage and lack of cleaning of food contact items, such as their slicer.

The owners were given a risk control plan to complete for each violation and required to give it back to the inspector. The inspector was provided a copy filled out in English, and the owner kept a copy in English and their native language.

During the most recent inspection in March 2010, the inspector was completely floored by the change in the restaurant! The kitchen was cleaned from top to bottom and all of
the previously cited violations were corrected! In addition, there was not a single critical food safety violation, a first in this restaurant's history!

The operators took the time to really consider what the root causes of their violations were and addressed them. We feel this is one fantastic success story, and a great example of how a risk control plan can work for a restaurant.

Trick or treat or just a practical joke?

We ask many questions of the restaurant managers and staff and often ask if anything new has occurred since our last visit. During an inspection of a restaurant, the restaurant manager said one of the staff noticed the floor drain under the bar sink kept flooding. When they looked into the floor drain to see what was causing the blockage, there was a squid! Not alive of course, but still a pretty strange sight to see, especially since the restaurant doesn't serve squid! The sanitarian asked the manager to speak to the employees about the issue and to call our offices if this ever occurred again.

Sure enough, a few weeks went by, and the inspector received a telephone call that one of the staff at this restaurant had found another squid in the drain. The inspector went to investigate. The restaurant manager thought it might be coming from a neighboring restaurant, so the sanitarian went to investigate. No restaurants in the area serve whole squid, so the inspector was stumped. To this day, no one knows how the squid appeared in the floor drains. Could it have been a practical joke by an employee, a Red Wings fan with an extra sea creature to dispose of, or is there a giant squid living under the streets? We'll probably never know.

For more information on restaurant reports, restaurant licensing, or food safety in general, call:

Washtenaw County Department of Public Health
Environmental Health Division
734-222-3800

Or visit the Washtenaw County Environmental Health Restaurant Inspection website.

Kristen Schweighoefer is a supervisor for the Washtenaw County Environmental Health division. She can be reached at (734) 222-3968.