Working harder to pass muster

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Some local restaurants that for two decades took advantage of lenient food inspection laws are learning that new regulations can be tough to chew and swallow.

For instance, no longer do Clark County Health District food inspectors have to give messy restaurants 48 hours to clean up before lowering their grade.

"We are changing the posting on the spot as a result of new regulations that began Oct. 1," said Health District Environmental Health Supervisor Felix Havis. "They (restaurant operators) are fast realizing that the time for correction has become drastically shortened."

In short, there is no time for correction.

Before last month, a health inspector, following a surprise inspection, could not lower the grade of the restaurant from A (less than 10 demerits) to B (11-20 demerits) or C (21-to-39 demerits) without first giving the proprietor two days to clean up and schedule a reinspection.

On that follow-up visit, the grade would remain an A if the problems had been corrected. Otherwise, the grade would drop and the proprietor would have 10 days to correct a C rating and 30 days to get a B grade up to an A.

"This is better because the grade that the customer sees posted is the actual grade of the restaurant at the time," Havis said. He noted that under the old regulations, a customer would never know whether the eatery had a C-level score but was operating as an A-grade establishment during its clean-up period.

And, if the inspector got bogged down and had to postpone the reinspection, or if a weekend or holiday fell between the original inspection date and scheduled reinspection, the restaurant would get even longer to operate as an A-grade establishment with a substandard score.

"I find that it (the new regulation) appears to be working better," Havis said.

And, the regulation defining where restaurants must place their grade sign also was clarified so that it is posted where the public can readily see it. An A-grade lettering is blue, B is green and C is red -- all on white cardboard.

State law permitting the 48-hour cleanup period went into effect about 20 years ago, but was removed from the books about five years ago. However, the old policy was allowed to remain in use in counties until they upgraded their regulations.

For Clark County, that was done June 27, with the effective date being Oct. 1.

As a result, the SUN's "quick cleanup" section of its monthly Restaurant Inspections chart will be discontinued starting today. In its place, will be "Food Probes," a glimpse at some of the things inspectors look for when they determine a restaurant's grade.

What remains unchanged is that an inspector can close a restaurant if it gets 40 or more demerits or otherwise presents a public health risk -- without giving it any time to clean up.

The local laws also are attracting praise from national observers.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said Clark County rated in the top 10 of 45 state and local agencies in charge of restaurant inspections.

The organization, comparing regulations for criteria like recommended cooking temperatures for meat with the 1995 Food Code issued by the Food and Drug Administration, found that the local agency adopted seven of the 12 national standards.

Other major local food sanitation changes that took effect include:

* Food handlers who touch ready-to-eat products before they are wrapped must wear latex gloves. Also, they must change gloves when they leave the kitchen or do other jobs such as sweep, mop or take out the trash. Sushi is an exception because it takes a greater degree of dexterity to prepare. However, sushi preparers must rinse their bare hands in an anti-bacterial solution.

* The holding temperature for cold foods has been reduced from 45 degrees to 40 degrees.

* Prechilled ingredients must be used for "potentially hazardous foods" (chicken, fish, meat or any food capable of supporting the rapid and progressive growth of infectious or toxic microorganisms). For instance, if a can of tuna is used on the spot to make sandwiches, that is permitted. But, if there is leftover tuna to be used later, it must first be chilled.

* Domestic equipment like refrigerators and stoves must be replaced by commercial equipment on change of ownership and remodeling. However, Havis said, the Health District is allowed to give leeway if the domestic equipment, not normally designed to handle business use demand is operating properly.

* The inspector's checklist form has been reduced from two pages to one and from 118 items to 40. The new sheet is compatible with the U.S. Public Health Service inspection form, Havis said.