June 10, 2014
By
David Sneed
The
Tribune
San Luis Obispo County’s Health
Agency should do a better job of making the results of its restaurant food
safety inspections available to the public, the San Luis Obispo County civil
grand jury has concluded.
In a report released Tuesday,
the grand jury said the agency meets the minimum requirements of state law but
should do more to make inspection results easily accessible to the dining
public, including developing a more user-friendly website and requiring that
results be posted onsite.
“The San Luis Obispo County
Health Agency could, and should, go beyond what is required by devising and
implementing an efficient system that is easily recognizable and accessible to
the public,” the grand jury concluded. “More importantly, a usable system
should be created that includes a visible placard in all county restaurants and
a website to inform the public of their food safety.”
Restaurants and other
food-serving facilities, including grocery stores and markets, are inspected at
least once a year and evaluated on 54 safety criteria. Under the rules, a
restaurant is required to make the results of its inspection available to the
public but the exact method is not specified.
The results are also available
on the county’s website at www.slocounty.ca.gov/health/publichealth/ehs/services/food/RestInspSearch.htm. But the grand jury said the website is only searchable by
precisely spelling the restaurant’s name, and the results cannot be sorted by
local area or numerical inspection rating.
“The grand jury found the
website is not user-friendly,” the report concluded. “It includes not only
restaurants but hundreds of other food-related facilities inspected by the
Health Agency.”
Curt Batson, county
environmental health director, said he has seen the report but is not ready to
respond. “I’ve just barely started the process,” he said.
The
grand jury report said the agency acknowledges that better website programs are
available, but buying them could result in increased inspection fees. Grand
jury recommendations are not binding.
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