Health Inspectors

A restaurateur’s best friend — or worst enemy?

Sept. 15, 2018

Each year, every restaurant in Michigan receives a surprise visit from an environmental health sanitarian. Empowered with the ability to both end livelihoods and protect the public, environmental health sanitarians spend their days examining things like expiration dates on food containers and exhaustive checklists of internal cooking temperatures. Sometimes, a single health inspector in Grand Traverse County will visit up to six food service establishments in a day. 
           
Both restaurants and health inspectors are working to do their job the best they can just like the rest of us, but is there any animosity between restaurants and these people who are paid to judge the minutia of their work environment?
           
According to the Michigan Food Code a “Food Service Establishment” is anything from the seasonal popcorn stand at your local movie theater to full service restaurants that are open all year. The word “restaurant” generally refers to the latter.
           
The primary job of a health inspector is to educate and inform both restaurant workers and the public of proper techniques and new laws or policies regarding food safety. They assist in navigating through the labyrinth of things like kitchen gloves and cutting boards. Wood or plastic? What if a line cook is allergic to latex gloves? Is it legal to touch a steak on the grill to check for doneness if your hands are clean? This is where a a health sanitarian can help.
           
Restauranteurs in the area seem glad for this opportunity for education, because a bad review from a dissatisfied customer popping up on Yelp or Facebook is significantly more damning than a health inspector citing a minor violation. And, lucky for inspectors and diners alike, none of the five inspectors interviewed has ever shut down a restaurant in Grand Traverse or Benzie/Leelanau for health code violations.
           
“In years past maybe you were just thinking that inspectors were asking you to do unreasonable things, but people are so much more educated now. Nobody wants people to get sick and leave the restaurant and then—bam!—post it on social media,” says Dave Denison, who owns downtown Traverse City restaurant Amical. “Health inspectors are a tool,” he says.
           
Pete Siagkris of The Riverside Inn says, “They’re very knowledgeable. They’ll help answer any questions—if a law has changed or anything like that.” 
           
Health inspectors help interpret the information and inform restaurants of any code changes in a timely fashion, but identifying every single issue for every single restaurant is a challenge.
           
“There are a lot of ideations out there. What we focus on is things that could make someone sick immediately,” says Grand Traverse County environmental health sanitarian Ashley Curtis. 
           
These are called “Risk Based Inspections,” which identify things like proper hand washing and cooking temperatures, or servers who appear too sick to work.
           
“The health department is understaffed—and they’ll tell you that,” says Denison.
           
In Grand Traverse County alone there are almost 500 restaurants and food trucks—not counting the temporary and seasonal establishments like ice cream stands or the National Cherry Festival—and only four health inspectors, whose jobs include not only restaurant inspections but also establishments such as tattoo parlors and daycare centers. That’s about 125 restaurants per inspector.
           
“The tough part is we’re only there twice a year at most,” says Nick Dow, a health sanitarian for Benzie/Leelanau County “We’re seeing a snapshot. So, if they change up what they’re doing we might not be there to see that.” Dow alone is in charge of overseeing 230 restaurants in the Benzie/Leelanau area. An overwhelming prospect.
           
Still, he says, “If they’re open, they’re good by my standards.” On the 360-odd days of the year a health inspector isn’t available to attend to a certain issue, they have to rely on restaurant leaders and diners to report anything that looks out of line.
           
“If there’s anything crazy you guys usually bring it to the attention of the restaurants,” says Dow.
           
Many restaurants in the area—including Amical, who will celebrate their 25th anniversary next year—have built a home in Northwest Michigan. They want to provide the best possible experience for their diners.
           
“People take pride in there work. We’re not here to criticize that,” says Grand Traverse County environmental health sanitarian Craig Preston.
           
That said, a restaurant is a busy place. Line cooks and servers shout out to each other, dishes break, fingers get burnt, and there is always the constant buzz of chatting diners. Sometimes things slip through the cracks; human error is an ever-present factor.
           
How can diners help keep both themselves and the restaurant workers safe? As they say at airport security: if you see something, say something.
           
Some of the most common violations with regard to risk-based inspections will be apparent to the diner. Is your chicken still pink? Is their scum on the prongs of your fork or the edge of your glass? Take responsibility for your experience and check to see that your meat is cooked through and to your specifications. If your server seems ill or has un-bandaged wounds on their hands, then notify the management.
           
One of the biggest indicators of a struggling restaurant is disorganization. “Things happen,” says Preston, “But if no one is in control, then that’s when things get out of hand and start to go backwards.”
           
The difference between a busy restaurant evening and an upset stomach could be as simple as respectfully notifying your server that your steak isn’t cooked through. Don’t worry about being the person who sent something back. If it’s incorrect, a good restaurant will want to know. Likewise, if you’re a server or a cook, let the kitchen manager know if the walk-in freezer feels a little warmer than usual. A few degrees makes all difference in avoiding waste.
           
“The worst part of my job is when a walk in cooler is at the wrong temperature, and in my role of health inspector, if that food has been in there for over four hours it needs to be discarded. I’ve had to throw away $2,000 to $3,000 worth of product before,” says Dow, who once actually discovered a forgotten and unplugged chest freezer full of rotting chicken. (But, don’t worry. That was at a restaurant down state.)
           
You can even bring some of the Michigan Food Code to your home kitchen to keep you and your family safe. The biggest issues in home cooking? Cross-contamination, cooking temperatures, and hand washing. “And, don’t wash chicken,” says Grand Traverse County environmental health sanitarian, Erik Carpenter. (Washing chicken can easily spread bacteria.) Buying a reliable meat thermometer will make a huge difference in both the quality of your cooking and your general food safety.
           
Thinking of opening a new restaurant or other variety of Food Service Establishment? Pay attention to the details.
           
Carpenter suggests, “For anybody looking to open a restaurant, have a focused menu.  Specialize in a smaller number of things and make them really well, make them taste really good.  Anybody can make food, so you need to find a way to shine and draw in customers.” This will also make it a bit simpler when you’re wading through the Michigan health code.
           
Denison recommends making sure you are working with reputable vendors. Amical works with John Cross in Charlevoix, who sources their whitefish, Superior Seafoods out of Grand Rapids, Zenner Farms, and the Traverse City based Cherry Capital Foods, who source food exclusively from Michigan farms. 
           
There is a symbiotic relationship between health inspectors and local restaurants. Together, they help keep the public safe and comfortable in local restaurants and are both vital to the success of the local economy.
           
For more information on your favorite restaurants in Grand Traverse County, the county posts public records of restaurant inspections on their website. Simply go to www.swordsolutions.com/inspections and enter the applicable information.