We’ve noticed a number of Greenwood/Phinney restaurants with pretty poor health inspections lately, so we decided to find out a little more about how restaurants are rated during inspections.
According to Public Health – Seattle & King County, most restaurants, coffee shops, delis, etc., have two unannounced inspections every year. Inspectors tally up violation points on a Food Establishment Inspection Report. Red Critical violations represent the highest risk of food borne disease, such as adequate hand washing facilities, raw meats kept away from ready-to-eat foods, and proper heating and cooling temperatures. Blue violations relate to the maintenance and cleanliness of the establishment and don’t net as many points.
Any Red Critical violations are handled on the spot, with the inspector teaching the restaurant’s manager the proper procedures. Here are three recent bad inspections from the neighborhood:
Red Mill got tagged with 65 points of Red Critical violations on March 26, including hands not washed as required, improper methods used to prevent bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, and improper cooking and temperature of potentially hazardous foods.
Pete’s Egg Nest received 65 points of Red Critical violations on April 21, including hands not washed as required, improper cold holding temperatures, and improper handling of pooled eggs.
El Chupacabra got hit with a combined 53 points from Red Critical and Blue Critical violations on April 21, including hands not washed as required, and garbage not properly disposed.
An inspection with 45 Red Critical points requires a re-inspection within 14 days; 90 RC points would shut the place down. A combination of 120 Red and Blue Critical points also would require a shutdown.
You can check any restaurant or coffee shop’s inspection history online through Public Health’s Food Inspection Program. It takes a few weeks for them to put inspection and reinspections online, so there wasn’t an update to any of these inspections yet.
