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Looking for your favorite restaurant's inspection results? The scoring system is going away.

Belleville News-Democrat - 5/31/2018

May 31--Public health officials who inspect restaurants in the East St. Louis area have started using a new checklist designed to emphasize ways to prevent foodborne illnesses, and all inspectors in the state must start using the new form by January.

But the new inspection form does not include something metro-east residents are used to seeing on restaurant inspection reports: a scoring system. Local health departments typically have scored restaurants in food safety practices during unannounced visits in which a 100 is a perfect mark.

The new inspection report forms have to be put in place by local health departments by Jan. 1, according to a mandate by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which in turn based its decision on rules established by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

Instead of seeing a score such as a 95 on the inspection form for a restaurant, you will see an entry for the number of violations and the number of repeat violations of 29 requirements that must be fulfilled.

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Some area public health department officials have concerns about dropping the scoring system, but others said they are open to try the new form as proposed.

"Using a scoring system has some negative consequences," Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said in an email. "For example, it is possible for a food establishment to receive a high numerical or letter score while exhibiting some very serious deficiencies."

Local health departments can list the total the number of violations found at a food establishment, Arnold said.

Sharon Valentine, environmental health manager for the St. Clair County Health Department, said public health officials in the region have been discussing ways they "could use some sort of a system to give the public an easier snapshot than reading the inspection report."

And John Wagner, administrator of the Monroe County Health Department, said, "It appears to be that it is going to be more difficult for the general public to actually determine ... what's going on in a restaurant. Some counties are ... looking around to see what they can do."

He believes a scoring or grading system gives restaurants an incentive to promote food safety in their business.

The American Journal of Public Health reported in March 2015 that a study of New York City restaurants indicated that the city's letter-grading program produced "a positive impact on restaurant hygiene, food-safety practices and public awareness."

Valentine noted that even if the state doesn't allow a scoring system, local officials will comply with the mandate to use the new inspection forms.

The top 29 requirements on the new report are called foodborne illness risk factors and public health interventions. The risk factors include practices or procedures that are the most prevalent contributing factors of foodborne illness or injury, and the public health interventions are measures taken to prevent foodborne illness or injury, according to the inspection form.

"The new FDA form has all of the 'critical' type violations now listed as foodborne iIllness risk factors and public health interventions. Those are all found in the top half of the inspection report, so it is easier to understand and more uniform throughout the state," Arnold said.

"There is less of a focus on a score and more on the total number of foodborne illness risk factor violations," Arnold said. "The new inspection report is easier to use as it serves as a checklist where the inspector must review all of the foodborne illness risk factor violations on the top half of the form."

The bottom part of the form asks inspectors to check for 28 "good retail practices." These include requirements such as using approved methods to thaw food and all employees receiving food-handler training.

Sam Toia, president and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said in a statement that the new inspection form "is based on the most recent science and best practices regarding food safety."

Toia said the new format means businesses throughout the state will be held to the same standards.

"Using a comprehensive and uniform inspection process and common language statewide will ensure consistency throughout the industry in Illinois," he said.

East Side kicks off

The East Side Health District in East St. Louis began using the new inspection system in January.

Meanwhile, the health departments in St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Monroe and Randolph counties plan to start using the new inspection forms on Jan. 1.

Myla Blandford, assistant administrator for the East Side Health District, said no problems have been reported with the new inspection form, but she said the department has received requests for a letter grade to be issued.

"There have been few changes in the actual inspection method," Blandford said in an email. "The new form provides more descriptive options for the inspector to indicate compliance status."

The health departments inspect what are known as "food establishments." Along with restaurants, these places includes nursing homes, convenience stores and schools.

East Side has 346 establishments to monitor. The district does not post restaurant inspection reports on its website, but the reports are considered public records and you can see them by filing a Freedom of Information Act request by email.

East Side's territory includes the Canteen, Centreville, East St. Louis and Stites townships.

Here are highlights from five area counties regarding the new inspection system:

St. Clair County

Inspectors from the St. Clair County Health Department oversee 1,050 food establishments.

Sharon Valentine, who oversees the St. Clair County inspectors, praised the thoroughness of the new inspection format.

"The new form is much, much more in-depth," she said. "That's good.

"It takes the focus away from dirty walls, floors and ceiling and puts it on the food. It does change the focus of the inspection to those items that really make people sick."

St. Clair County currently posts restaurant inspection scores on its website.

"I don't think it would be a bad thing to have a score," Valentine said. "The public's used to it."

"We will do this whether or not we are allowed to have a score," she said. "At this point, the state has been very adamant that this is not to be a scored inspection."

Madison County

Amy Yeager, spokeswoman for the Madison County Health Department, said the new form will mean residents will have to adapt to checking out a restaurant's number of violations as opposed to its traditional score.

"It's not that it's better or worse, ... it's just change. It's just different," she said.

Madison County inspectors have 1,359 food establishments to track. The county currently posts scores online.

Yeager said the county has not yet determined what it will post online once the new inspection forms are being used.

Clinton County

Health department officials in Clinton County have 232 establishments to inspect.

Cheryl Lee, the administrator for the department, said health departments and food establishments will have to get used to the new form.

"I think change is hard ... when you're used to doing something a certain way for a long time," Lee said.

"The bottom line, at the end of the day is, are we able to get in there to make sure that they have good food handling practices, that they're being compliant and we are not putting the public at risk with disease and foodborne illness? I think it's a just different way to get about the same outcome."

Clinton County does not post restaurant inspection scores on the web but you can call the department at 618-594-2723 or send a Freedom of Information Act request to find about a restaurant.

Monroe County

John Wagner, administrator for the Monroe County Health Department, said his department has about 160 places to inspect for food safety practices.

As far as using the new inspection format, he said there will be a "learning curve to this and we're going to have to figure it out."

Monroe puts its restaurant inspections on its website.

Randolph County

The Randolph County Health Department inspects about 200 food establishments.

Stephanie Martin, the public health administrator for the county, said the new restaurant inspection format will bring consistency in inspections across the state and across the country as health departments adopt federal guidelines like Illinois.

Randolph County does not post its restaurant inspections online.

When to close

Metro-east public health officials said they rarely have to close a restaurant for food safety violations.

Inspectors often give restaurants a chance to fix a problem while the inspector is on the scene.

"We're going to help them to try and make the food safer," Valentine said. "Our No. 1 goal is not to close someone. Our No. 1 goal is to help them understand how to make that food as safe as possible."

Businesses will sometimes close voluntarily while repairs are being made.

Restaurants have a "good working relationship" with inspectors in Madison County, Yeager said.

A restaurant represents the owner's livelihood so he or she usually want to get a problem fixed immediately, she said.

"They want to have a place that people can come in and enjoy and want to come visit," Yeager said.

Checklist comparison

The old restaurant inspection form has 45 items to check and the "critical" points were scattered throughout the form, Arnold said. In contrast, the new form has 57 items to check.

The new checklist highlights the importance of a restaurant's supervisors as the first two items on the new checklist concerns the supervisors.

A food establishment's supervisor must have at least eight hours of training in food safety practices, Valentine said.

"It is a violation if the person who is running the facility does not have the training necessary to make sure that they understand how to keep that food safe," Valentine said.

Valentine also noted the new checklist has an entry requiring the food establishment to have a plan for cleaning up vomit or diarrhea.

"It's a big change," she said. The norovirus can be spread through the air so Valentine said a restaurant should move customers away from an area where someone threw up.

The images below show the inspection form now used in St. Clair County and then a draft of the new form. You can zoom on the images to read them more closely.

Mike Koziatek: 618-239-2502, @MikeKoziatekBND

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