Inspection mixed bag at eateries

Philly’s Phinest Pizza and Shelley’s American Pie are separated by only a few dozen feet along the same stretch of Carey Avenue. But because Shelley’s is in Hanover Township and Philly’s Phinest is just across the municipal border in Wilkes-Barre, curious diners will find only the restaurant inspection report for Philly’s Phinest posted online.

That inconsistency is something state and local health officials and even some restaurant owners think should change, and slowly but surely change is occurring.

“I honestly believe everybody should be posted,” said Cindy Bollinger, co-owner of Philly’s Phinest. She said that having reports posted online are good for business and keeps everybody on their toes. “If one restaurant is online, they all should be.”

“I think all things should be equal,” said Gary Edwards, owner and head chef at Fire & Ice, a restaurant that opened in July in Trucksville. Inspection reports for his restaurant and others in Kingston Township are posted on a state Web site, but reports for dining establishments in nearby Larksville, Kingston and West Pittston are much harder to find.

As long as individual municipalities continue to conduct their own inspections and aren’t required to post reports on the Internet, there will be a level of unfairness, Edwards said. State officials concur.

A state Department of Agriculture initiative started in 2006 to bring a more uniform approach to inspections and to informing the public of what inspections find is gaining traction, but as the situation with the two pizza parlors illustrates, it’s not complete.

More municipalities are getting out of the food inspection business and entrusting those duties to the state’s Department of Agriculture. Some Luzerne County towns are among them and others may follow next year as the demands of handling inspections in-house become more cumbersome.

The move to state inspectors helps make things more uniform and allows residents to view reports at the department’s Web site, www.agriculture.state.pa.us/agriculture/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=137994, said department spokesman Chris L. Ryder. Some municipalities have retained their own health officials, use an inspection form identical to the state’s and post their reports on the state’s Web site.

But it’s the group of municipalities like Hanover Township that still use their own inspectors with their own reports that has some state officials and other inspectors concerned.

John Rupert, a Department of Agriculture food safety inspector based in Tunkhannock, said municipalities that do their own inspections and do not post the reports online are a concern to him and should be a concern to consumers and other restaurant owners, too.

“Because we don’t really have contact with them and we don’t have access to their reporting, we can’t really be sure (how stringent their inspections are),” Rupert said.

Hanover Township health inspector James Desiderio said his inspections are performed at the highest levels of safety, but he admitted he can’t speak for all municipal inspectors. That’s why having uniform inspection standards and then having them posted on line are vital, said Ryder. “Our hope is to have everyone in the state using the (state) system,” Ryder said. “There needs to be some consistency.”

Desiderio said the state approached him about posting reports online, which he’s in favor of, but he never received a follow-up call about getting the software to do so.

“I think it’s fair. If it’s fair for restaurant A, it should be fair for restaurant B,” Desiderio said.

Edwards has two decades’ experience with state and local inspections. “There really are major differences, depending on where you’re located,” he said.

The state is responsible for inspecting thousands of establishments each year – about 40 percent of the state’s retail food establishments. The other 60 percent is the responsibility of individual municipalities or county departments of health.

For any establishment that prepares food – which includes schools, convenience stores, bowling alleys and restaurants, among others – inspectors are required to make at least one inspection a year. If violations are found, fines of up to $500 can be levied and in extreme cases, the business can be closed.

“If it’s an imminent health risk, we would shut them down immediately,” Ryder said. “Rodent infestation, no hot water, water that has not passed Department of Environmental Protection testing are among those situations.”

Most of the time, said Rupert, the violations are easily correctable, such as posting signs such as “employees must wash hands” in the restrooms, getting a new cutting board or raising or lowering the temperature settings on the salad bar or buffet.

Establishments have a set time table to correct violations and then inspectors return for follow-ups until the problems are fixed. If a business is closed, it can not reopen until inspectors say so. Inspectors never pre-announce their visit and are not limited to one inspection per year. If complaints are received, inspectors will be dispatched, even if they’ve recently inspected the business.

Ryder said a spotless inspection is the exception but that no Luzerne County businesses have been closed down this year.

“You don’t get perfect scores, I don’t care what kind of an operation you’re running,” he said.