Restaurant Health Ratings Online

By John Voket

Newtown’s regional Health District Director Donna Culbert believes the posting of restaurant and food service ratings on her agency’s website is a useful tool for potential patrons to use to determine where they plan to eat or pick up a convenient meal to go.

But a lack of detail on exactly what constitutes the scores means anyone hitting the site to review local restaurant ratings is not getting a full course of information to convey the story behind the scores.

The busy schedule of the district’s food inspection pro Suzette LeBlanc, and the amount of time it would take to maintain a more detailed posting, currently hampers Ms Culbert’s wish to serve up greater detail behind the scores.

For example, a quick perusal of the score sheet might lead a visitor to assume one of the safest places in town to eat is the UK Gourmet on Mt Pleasant. But, Ms LeBlanc said, that boutique achieved the highest possible score of 100 because it retails only prepackaged foods.

“Class 1 locations typically have the lowest level of risk for contamination,” Ms LeBlanc said.

The guidelines to conform, and therefore achieve a high quality rating, are minimal compared to, say, a full service restaurant that maintains a working kitchen supplying hot and cold foods of various kinds for patrons eating in, or taking out, as well as prepackaged items like chips or snack cakes.

Operators of the latter type of operation must conform to dozens of other, much more stringent standards for holding, storage, temperature, and many other facility-related concerns. And they may be subject to as many as four inspections annually.

But, Ms Culbert explained, the business classification corresponds with the number of annual inspections required by state health codes. That means a Class 1 establishment is required to be inspected just once per year, versus a Class 4 operation which is visited quarterly.

In a conference call with The Bee this week, Ms Culbert and Ms LeBlanc discussed their desire to eventually expand the simple punch list ratings with some narrative about exactly why the scores are what they are.

“First, people should know the district is not required to post inspection information, even though it is public information that anyone can request,” Ms Culbert said. “But since we are posting the ratings, we’d like to find an efficient way to make even more information available online than just the name, class, date of inspection, and the score.”

Since the overall rating is a cumulative result of various violations from slight to severe, that detail might include how many one-point demerits an inspection yields, versus four-point demerits.

“There are critical violations that each would constitute a four-point demerit,” Ms LeBlanc said. “These range from not holding food for service at the proper temperature, or not keeping food to go at 45 degrees to [poor] hand washing practices or even toxic items in proximity to the food.”

Besides the many establishments that provide food items on a day-to-day basis, the district must also work with and inspect other events like the St Rose Parish Carnival underway this weekend. Typically an activity like this, classified as a “temporary event,” must complete its application to serve food 14 days or more in advance. That application would provide specifics on the entire menu being down to water and ice, the approved sources of the food items, details on hot and cold food preparation, storage, serving plans, cooking temperatures, and holding information.

“Any event that will provide food to the public for free or for sale is required by state health code to contact the health district in advance,” Ms LeBlanc said.

“We’ll work with everyone to try and ensure a successful event,” Ms Culbert added.

In regard to the Internet ratings, Ms Culbert said she recognizes the importance of making that information meaningful, and that means providing the most information available.

“We are working to post it in the upcoming months,” she said. “The information currently posted has limited value because it does not provide the ability to compare establishment to establishment.”

Ms Culbert said residents should rest assured that the regional Health District, which serves Newtown, Roxbury, and Bridgewater, as well as Brookfield on a temporary basis, has extremely qualified staff who inspect and work with food service establishments.

“In the absence of all of the detailed information that we hope will ultimately be posted, the residents of the district have the assurance of the director that the Food Program is operating at an optimal level with regard to licensing, inspections, and education,” she said.

The district’s restaurant ratings are available at www.newtown-ct.gov/Public_Documents/NewtownCT_Health/restaurant.