Customers at restaurants and food trucks throughout Kitsap County will soon have an easy way to learn if the food handling practices of the establishment they are eating at are satisfactory before they order.
The Kitsap Public Health District is in the process of posting newly designed food safety inspection signs at businesses that provide food to the public, ranging from eateries to grocery stores. The signs, expected to be up by Aug. 1, will display the business’s rating given by health inspectors.
“The signs are to increase public awareness of food safety in the establishment and to hopefully help the establishment want to improve their food safety scores,” said Anne Moen, KPH food and living environment program manager, who supervises the county’s six food safety inspectors.
Ratings on the signs — Best, Great, Okay, or Needs to Improve – are based on the average score from the last two years of food safety inspections.
Best: No violations observed (100% average score)
Great: A few violations observed
Okay: A number of violations observed
Needs to improve: Establishment is on probation
Previously, food safety signs posted at businesses contained little information and required members of the public to go to the KPHD website to learn details of the last food safety inspection. The new signs make food safety scores more accessible by directly informing customers of the inspection rating.
Each notice features an emoji that ranges from a wide smile (Best) to a frown (Needs to improve). “People are seeing a visual representation of that restaurant’s food safety score right there,” Moen said.
Signs are to be posted where customers can easily see them before they order food. Examples include: the front door, sales counter and drive-through window.
The signs will showcase the business’s average food safety scores for the past two years.
“We could have done an inspection where one day everything’s perfect, and then the next time, maybe the refrigerator is off by a few degrees. That could affect their score. By using an average offers (the public) a bigger picture,” Moen said.
Food safety inspections are conducted twice a year at approximately 1,300 locations, Moen said. A typical site review takes an hour. In addition to restaurants, inspections take place at coffee stands, delis and mini marts.
Inspectors check for unsafe food handling practices that could make people sick. Common violations include storing foods at improper food temperatures, sick food workers, cross-contamination of foods, such as raw meat touching ready-to-eat foods, Moen said.
Temporary food establishments undergo inspections but are not required to post the new signs. These include vendors at Kitsap Fair, Farmer’s Markets and at festivals such as Whaling Days.
KPHD officials examined how public health agencies in neighboring counties communicated food handling inspection results to the public as part of their efforts to develop the new signs.
“We did some research with King County and Pierce County on their programs. Our (new signs) aligned pretty close with Pierce County,” Moen said.
Anyone wanting to learn details of a business’s food safety inspection can view the full report at: kitsappublichealth.org/foodreports.
