Curious Iowa: How often are restaurant inspections conducted?

When you go to the grocery store or out to eat with your family, you trust that the establishment follows food safety guidelines to keep you healthy. These facilities are inspected to make sure they follow good food preparation, hygiene, and retail practices.

But how often are food facilities inspected? How can you search for inspection reports from your favorite restaurant or grocery store? And how are violations followed up on?

To answer these questions, we spoke with senior environmental health specialists at Linn County Public Health and joined them during a routine inspection.

Who inspects restaurants?

The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing (DIAL) enforces the Iowa food safety code. The state of Iowa conducts inspections for around 60 counties in the state. Some counties, like Linn County, enter agreements with DIAL to conduct their own food inspections. Similarly, Jones County’s health inspections are performed by Linn County Public Health.

While counties can conduct inspections, they do not have the authority to implement their own food safety policies.

Linn County Public Health has five full-time environmental health specialists. About 1,500 licensed facilities are served by this team, who are assigned specific territories of their coverage area. Every few years, the territories are re-assigned so that inspectors are not overly familiar with a particular facility.

To become an environmental health specialist in Linn County, you must have a four-year degree in biology or major coursework in biology, chemistry, and microbiology. Once hired, the specialist undergoes 12-18 months of training in the food safety program.

Restaurants pay a flat license fee — between $150-$400 based on annual gross sales. Dustin Hinrichs, manager of the environmental quality branch of Linn County Public Health, said that in some of the counties where local programs carry out inspections, these fees are supplemented with local tax dollars.

He gave the example of a single restaurant having a routine inspection and several complaint inspections that require follow up inspections.

“The license fee doesn’t come close to covering in many of those cases,” he said, “so yeah, that’s just the reality of our situation right now.”

How often are facilities inspected?

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Licensed facilities that serve food range from a vending machine to a food truck, full service restaurant or a large grocery store. Manufacturing facilities are inspected by the federal government.

Hinrichs said about 15 years ago, licensed facilities were inspected at least once a year. Follow-up work and complaint inspections were conducted as needed.

Now, Linn County Public Health uses a five tier system to assign risk numbers to determine how frequently the facility is visited for routine inspections. The risk level depends on the type of food being prepared, the clientele being served, hours of operation, and volume of food being served.

School kitchens, for example, are inspected at least once a year. A vending machine, where unpackaged food is not being handled, doesn’t need to be inspected annually.

“The higher risk the facility, the more time we’d like to spend with those operators to make sure that they know what they’re doing and that their systems aren’t in need of some direction or some correction,” Hinrichs said.

A risk one facility, like a vending machine, may be inspected every three to five years. A risk five facility, like a grocery store, is inspected at least twice a year.

Hinrichs said a Walgreens or CVS would fall into a risk 2 categorization. While they sell frozen and refrigerated items, food is not being handled at these types of facilities.

“They’re not even preparing any beverages on site ... they don’t have an ice machine. So really, their risk and complexity is very low,” Hinrichs said, “That’d be a good example of a facility we’ll visit far less frequently just because it doesn’t warrant our time.”

Hinrichs estimated that his team conducts about 120 inspections each month, but the volume of inspections varies based on openings and the complaints they receive.

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You can submit complaints to Linn County Public Health or to DIAL, but Hinrichs encourages Iowans to first bring concerns to the manager of the facility.

“If you see something, maybe bring it up to the management staff at a facility because likely they are not aware of it,” Hinrichs said. “If you don’t get a great response from management, that’s when we would ask that you maybe elevate it and bring it to our attention so we have a look into whatever your safety concern might be, whatever your public health concern might be.”

How to submit a food safety complaint

Submit online to the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing at dial.iowa.gov/licenses/food-establishments-hotels.

What happens when a restaurant receives a violation?

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There are 57 areas noted on food establishment inspection reports. Of those, 29 need to be corrected on site or in a short time frame if they are not in compliance. This includes things like marking dates when packages of food are opened and having accessible hand washing sinks.

“The items that are lower down on the list ... are more facility-related, so they’re not as related to the preparation of food and they’re not as concerning from a food safety perspective, but they are things that could contribute to food safety long term if they’re not addressed,” Hinrichs said.

This includes things like adequate ventilation and lighting, and posting licenses and reports. Iowa law requires that routine inspection, current complaint or reinspection reports are posted in an area visible to the public. Inspection reports are available online.

“What we’ll do is wait until the next time we’re on site and then we’ll follow up and look into those items and see if they were addressed since the previous inspection,” Hinrichs said.

Violations are noted as priority, priority foundation, or core. Priority violations have a correction time frame of three days, while priority foundation violations must be corrected within 90 days.

“A lot of the priority violations are going to have a direct correlation to the spread of foodborne illness. A lot of the cores are going to be more along the lines of general good practices for retail,” said Chase Moffitt, senior environmental health specialist for Linn County Public Health. “Things like making sure you’re not keeping cardboard boxes, making sure that the floor and walls and things like that are a cleanable surface. Things that are important, but don’t necessarily have the direct correlation in the spread of food borne illness.”

Violations are followed up through another site visit by inspectors or by submitting a letter of correction.

“A letter of correction is a way for us to document that a violation that happened on an inspection gets corrected by the facility,” Moffitt said. “And it’s a form that we give the facility that they then return to us within the documented time frame.”

Facilities submit photos, service invoices, statements, or certificates to prove that the violation has been corrected.

On-site education plays a large role in what Moffitt and his team do during inspections, which can last a few hours. New Pioneer Co-op, 3338 Center Point Rd. NE, underwent a routine inspection last week. Throughout the process, Moffitt talked to store manager Gina Molby, asked questions and shared ideas.

“Linn County Public Health is very supportive when they come in, and it’s a collaborative effort where we walk through and look at things together, and I can tell they really want us to succeed,” Molby said.

What process do restaurants go through before they open?

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Restaurants must apply for their license at least 30 days before they intend to open, but Hinrichs suggests applying further in advance. Why? Hinrichs and another senior environmental health specialist will review the layout of the restaurant — from the plumbing in the kitchen and restrooms to where kitchen equipment will be installed — to ensure that everything is compliant with the Iowa Food Code.

“So if we don't get the applications for the new facilities well in advance of when they're planning to open, their facility may or may not meet the requirements from an equipment or layout perspective,” Hinrichs said, “and so we may slow down their opening and also make it more expensive for them to have to make some changes prior to approval.”

In addition to providing floor plans, facilities must provide a menu.

“Then we can ask them those questions ahead of time and really talk through, is this actually the menu you’re planning to prepare and do you actually have the equipment to do that safely?” Hinrichs said. “And in Iowa, we don’t have a ton of control, like I can’t force their hand, I can’t make them change their menu, but I like to at least ask those questions so that they’re going into opening the business with eyes wide open and understand what the requirements are of our food code.“

Before a facility opens, a pre-opening inspection is conducted to make sure everything is functioning properly.

Then, a routine inspection will be scheduled within the first 60 to 90 days of operation.

“Because the facility is only a very small portion of what we do, what we’re really looking into is behaviors and how people who are working with food or preparing food are actually behaving within that environment, that they understand what their duties are from a food safety perspective when they’re making food for the public,” Hinrichs said.

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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com