Posted: May 23rd, 2007 - 4:10pm by Brae Surgeoner

Across North America where restaurant inspection results are made available to members of the public, they are done so using a patchwork of food safety disclosure systems. In Los Angeles County, a restaurant must post a letter grade in its front window (A, B or C). Whereas in Toronto, a restaurant must post a color placard in its front window (green, yellow or red). In addition to onsite notification, both cities provide a searchable online database for a hungry public to look up inspection results by restaurant name, address or borough. A "carrot and stick" approach to improving food safety standards, public disclosure of restaurant inspection results are intended to reward operators who make food safety a pillar of success, and punish those who scramble when the inspector arrives on the premise.

Last night as I was flipping through the local newspaper for Manhattan, Kansas (population ca. 50, 000) I stopped when I came across its 'foodSAFETY' column for area food inspections which (evidently) is published weekly in Tuesday's Food & Drink section. Very cool. Even cooler was that the paper published the inspection findings for one of the town's newest restaurants -- Houlihan's -- which is but a 5 minute walk from where I'm living. Ouch... the findings are not good. See for yourself. When the restaurant opened on February 2nd, the Kansas State Collegian, reported that managers chose not to advertise the opening of the restaurant to allow employees to acclimate to the full 170-person capacity. Based on this report, I would say that almost three months later employees are still acclimatizing. It will be interesting to see (and hear about) the impact that this report has on the restaurant's business, and of course on the staff's attention to food safety.

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