Area restaurants go for the gold
<p>Kristina Keating, an environmental health specialist for Panhandle Health District, checks the temperature of meat in a Coeur d'Alene food establishment.</p>
When I go out to eat, I look for a Panhandle Health District gold star on display by the establishment's cash register or in the window. The giant gold star is part of PHD's Award of Excellence in food safety.
The award tells me that the restaurant or food vendor I'm visiting sailed through its annual food safety inspection with no violations. The year of the inspection is on the award. So are these words, "For exceptional food safety and sanitation standards demonstrated by receiving no health code violation during the annual inspection."
Considering that 48 million cases of food-borne illness were reported throughout the nation last year, that gold star is a sign to me that food safety is a priority with a food establishment. Only 20 food-borne complaints were recorded in the five northern counties last year.
"Some places hang the awards up. I've seen them framed," says Kristina Keating, the environmental health specialist who coordinates PHD's food safety program. "Anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent of the places we inspect each month earn one."
PHD visits about 1,300 restaurants, stores, schools and more annually that serve perishable food to the public to check that they are complying with state standards that help prevent food-borne outbreaks. Food establishments have 49 standards to meet, ranging from the temperature of their refrigerators to how they handle their garbage. This month, 132 establishments earned a gold star.
To help establishments improve their inspection scores, PHD teaches a food safety course for food workers. The class restarted about 16 months ago after a hiatus and since then PHD has recorded 43 percent fewer cooking temperature violations and 9 percent fewer personal hygiene violations.
The class teaches food workers the safe temperatures for holding food, proper personal hygiene, how to clean equipment to avoid contamination, and safe cooking temperatures. It reminds food workers that food must come from approved sources. No home-canned or home-cooked foods, wild game or fish a friend of the owner pulled out of the lake can be served.
PHD posts the gold stars on its website-www.phd1.idaho.gov - on the Restaurant Inspection page. The stars are posted under the food establishment's name next to the inspection date that earned the honor. A link to the most recent awardees is on the PHD website homepage.
The absence of a food safety award doesn't mean you're likely to become sick after eating in an establishment. Plenty of popular dining spots have one or two violations on inspection day. Violations are educational opportunities for Keating and the PHD environmental health specialists who visit food establishments. Most establishments improve by a follow-up visit.
You can check an establishment's recent inspection history on the PHD website's Restaurant Inspection page. Nothing beats the gold star, but a violation or two that are quickly corrected indicate a gold star may be in that establishment's future.
Cynthia Taggart is the public information officer for the Panhandle Health District. She can be reached at ctaggart@phd1.idaho.gov.