Restaurants Named and Shamed in Aus

[knight76]

Here in Australia (NSW) Restaurants have begun being named and shamed whenever they receive a penalty notice from the "Health Inspector". The restaurants name appears on a website along with the location and date of the offence.

You can also click on a link to read the actual details of the penalty.

for example

Failure to protect food from the likelihood of contamination - food stored on the ground

Does anywhere else have this sort of public naming and shaming of restaurants?

Link to the Name and Shame site. Register of penalty notices | NSW Food Authority

 

[babetoo]

seems to me i have seen a list, but am not sure. good idea though. it is a bit scary to know what they are doing to our food in the back kitchen.

babe

 

[miniman]

Our local council has a website called safe2eat where inspection fails are listed. however the resturants are claiming that they are slow to note corrective actions.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

Here in the heart land of the US. Iowa we have a very tough inforcement policy
and it is on the county health dept. web site

 

[attie]

Interesting knight76 but I would suggest that that list is just the tip of the iceberg. If they are going to name and shame these people they had best name them all.

I don't know if I agree, perhaps for repeat offenders yes, but sometimes some of these little Hitler Health Inspectors get carried away with themselves.

 

[pacanis]

Does anywhere else have this sort of public naming and shaming of restaurants?

There are four local television stations in my area that have news programs. One of them reports on restaurants as they are inspected, listing critical violations, minor ones..... complete with camera in the restaurant filming the violations and their sign emblazened on your TV screen. Doesn't matter if it's a mom & pop or a chain.
I don't know how the news crew hooks up with the health inspector, but it is a regular feature.

 

[DramaQueen]

In Las Vegas, the Review-Journal lists the restaurants receiving demerits every Wednesday in their "Restaurant Report." It is amazing how many restaurants are in severe violation of the health rules. Restaurants receiving more than 40demerits are closed. They list one or two of the reasons for the demerits, but sometimes they soft peddle them so the public doesn't get too grossed out. Check it out ,
ReviewJournal.com - Living - RESTAURANT REPORT

 

[knight76]

Good to see this sort of information is publicly available in other places. Very interesting the TV channel version. That would make interesting viewing.

 

[attie]

Restaurants receiving more than 40demerits are closed

I think that's fair enough, if they continue their bad practises so they should.

I was once threatened to be fined 3 demerit by a DPI meat inspector because our butcher wasn't packaging the retail meat to his satisfaction, I took it lightly until I found out that each demerit point was a $30,000 fine.

 

[mozart]

Just my opinion, but I don't think media involvement beyond listing everyone's scores is particularly helpful. Even listing scores alone without some reference to what they signify and what the mean and median scores of all restaurants are under their jurisdiction will just cause confusion for most.

No restaurant will be without some issues if the Environmental Health Specialist is doing his job correctly. The media will often interpret reports based on their own limited knowledge.

If the Health Department initiates a routine report for the media on that week's or month's results, then it may be a good thing. But it needs to be regular and consistent.

Many violations are corrected during the discussion between the manager and the health department. For example, food stored on the floor usually means someone delivered a box of food and it hasn't been shelved yet. Should the floor become flooded, the food could be contaminated. Usually the manager will have the food shelved while the health department is still there. The violation usually will remain on the inspection sheet.

 

[Jeekinz]

I thought NYC did something like that?

 

[pacanis]

Good to see this sort of information is publicly available in other places. Very interesting the TV channel version. That would make interesting viewing.

Not if you recently ate there

 

[Michael in FtW]

Where I live - our county includes 50 cities - 46 use the county health inspectors, 4 use their own. All have searchable websites that list the latest inspection results ... not just a number but exactly what they got demerits for.

I think the local newspaper also has an article on one day each week listing the worst of the worst - but I haven't taken the paper in years so I don't know if they still do that or not.

 

[TyPiece]

In Lancaster we have weekly write-ups in the news paper about inspections and listed infractions. They used to give a score too but they stopped that. Impossible to get a perfect score! My restaurant got 3 points off because there was a steel wool pad on the floor during the middle of service! I mean come on! Thats why we clean the floors every night!

 

[Rom]

oh man i bought some fish tonight from one of the places listed...ick yuk ewwwww \
thanks for the list!

just had another look, it was to do with their license ..phew lol

 

[roadfix]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Restaurants in Los Angeles County are required to post health grade certificates in their front windows.

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[TyPiece]

wow..........that is pretty extreme. Do u notice difference in prices because of that?

 

[roadfix]

wow..........that is pretty extreme. Do u notice difference in prices because of that?

No, none whatsoever.
Although many hole-in-the-wall type eateries with B or even a C grade seem to have the best tasting food....

But on the other hand, a restaurant owner can "buy" an A grade from the health inspector, I would imagine.....

 

[expatgirl]

I know that Houston has a site............and we used to have Marvin Zindler.......Eyewitness News......... he would go around and personally inspect restaurants offending city ordinances and feature them on the show........his famous slammer? Slime in the ice machine!!! Houston's famous food warrior unfortunately passed away last year..........I know that the food kitchen that I worked in for the poor was absolutely spotless........there was not a speck of dirt anywhere.........we worked hard to make that place spotless..........and not to have "Slime in the ice machine"

 

[DramaQueen]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Restaurants in Los Angeles County are required to post health grade certificates in their front windows.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]

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Same in Clark County in Vegas. Big, bold letters ABor C, but who looks at them? I never do, I should but I never do. Gotta pay closer attention. There are a couple of Chinese restaurants that are cited every month, like clockwork. I don't think they get it. The violations are serious some to the point of closing the restaurants but they continue to open again, operate, get written up and repeat. The public still eats there. AAACCCKKKK.