Monday, May 22, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.
Steven Goode has some advice for people who wonder whether the restaurant they are considering is a safe place to dine.
While food preparation is usually out of sight of diners, he says customers can self-inspect a place by first taking a good look at their surroundings:
"If you go into a facility and you see the sanitation of the employees or the public seating area and you're uncomfortable with that, it should be a tip-off.
"If the facility cares so little about keeping the front of the house clean, you can just imagine what the kitchen looks like."
Goode should know. As environmental health manager for the Southern Nevada Health District, he oversees the 60 health inspectors and supervisors who check out 19,000 area businesses such as restaurants, bars and convenience stores.
And the top five violations Goode's inspectors find in the area?
About the same as in other cities, he says: improper hand-washing by employees; cross-contamination of raw and cooked food; improper cooling of food; food stored outside acceptable temperature ranges (not hot or cold enough); and, cross-contamination by a food handler, such as taking out the garbage and then fixing a sandwich without washing hands.
On the whole, Goode says, he would put Las Vegas restaurants up against any in the world for cleanliness and food safety.
The number of different cultures and exotic cuisines in the area, however, do present some interesting situations or problems for inspectors.
Shortly after he came to the district 12 years ago, Goode was trailing a seasoned inspector at an ethnic food restaurant - he would not further identify the cuisine - when they heard a commotion coming from a cardboard box.
They opened the box and discovered several turtles that were to be the evening's entree.
"These were pet turtles, they weren't cooking turtles," Goode recalls. "Needless to say we removed them from the premises."
While such an event is not common, he has seen his share, he says: "In our community, because of the diverse cultures that we have, there are things that may be unusual to those of us that may not have traveled outside of the country."
Goode says the diversity of cuisine may be what feeds a common misconception that restaurants specializing in certain types of ethnic cuisine are more prone to violations.
"Statistically that isn't true at all," Goode says. "Every culture brings their own mores into our culture, but in our community we have a lot more of certain types of restaurants so there may be the appearance that it happens more in those restaurants."
What is true, Goode says, is that a language barrier can sometimes make it difficult to explain violations to some restaurateurs. In these cases it is not necessarily an unwillingness to comply as much as a lack of understanding.
He says the Health District is willing to spend as much time as necessary to make sure restaurant owners know the standards.
But despite their best efforts, Goode says, inspectors are often viewed unfavorably by restaurant owners:
"There are times when the environmental health specialist is viewed as an outsider coming in just to find problems, when we're there primarily to ensure that the public health is foremost and is protected."
He says that restaurants in the large hotels often rate very high because they recognize the rules and the Health District's role.
"The positive things about dealing with the major resort properties is that typically a number of folks that are there are trained at a very high level," Goode says. "We are able to bring the information we are trying to share to the (employees) through someone they trust."
Major fast food chains also have very good training programs, he says, but can be challenged by employee sophistication:
"A lot of these employees are entry-level teens in their first job and are not as skilled. It is difficult for these places to maintain at the same level."
In between are the privately owned, or mom-and-pop restaurants, many of which have relocated from other cities.
Goode says the challenge in this case is to educate owners on the standards in place here. Once that is done, he says, such businesses usually comply at an acceptable level.
Restaurant growth has paralleled the increase in many other valley business sectors.
Goode says the area gets about 1,000 applications annually for new restaurants. The Environmental Health Division has managed to keep up with the increase by establishing a fee schedule for restaurants that allows it to add necessary inspectors.
On average, each inspector checks between seven and 10 businesses per day.
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