Diners headed to their favorite Salt Lake County restaurant, burger joint or grocery store have a new way to take a quick peek at what health inspectors found inside the kitchen. And it's already proving to be wildly popular.
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department unveiled a new Web site Thursday that allows residents to see whether a food service establishment has recently violated any standards, and if so, what the violations were. Within an hour following the morning press conference announcement, more than 68,000 people had logged in, temporarily crashing the system, according to spokeswoman Pam Davenport.
A link from the Salt Lake County's Web site at www.slvhealth.org titled "restaurant inspections" takes users to an extensive database that not only contains details from the county's most recent inspection report but allows diners to compare up to three eating establishments at a glance to see which got the best compliance ranking.
The site also allows users to register complaints about food handling via e-mail or to call the health department if they believe something they ate at a restaurant made them ill.
Gary Edwards, health department executive director, said county employees spent hundreds of hours preparing the Web site after examining similar sites nationwide to determine which features would be most helpful to residents.
"I believe it will be a model Web site for communities across the nation," Edwards said. "I think many local health departments will be looking to this."
Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said the site provides a new tool for residents to evaluate the cleanliness of food service providers beyond anecdotal comparisons.
"You've heard about all these different ways to find out whether a restaurant is safe and healthy," Corroon said. "Some say check out how clean the restroom is or peek into the kitchen to see how clean it looks."
With nearly 3,900 eating establishments countywide, the Web site provides residents with government information that is more "open, transparent and accessible," he said.
"Our number one priority is public safety,," Corroon said. "This will be a great tool for the public, and I believe our partnership with our valley's restaurants will be strengthened."
The Web site is only the second in Utah that allows residents to quickly find details about food service inspections. Davis County has a similar site, officials said.
While full-service restaurants and fast-food outlets are the subject of most speculation when it comes to food safety, the department's Bureau of Food Protection also regulates food carts, delis, cafeterias (both public and within private institutions such as hospitals), caterers, concession stands and other businesses — including food preparation within grocery stores and gas station outlets that sell for prepackaged sandwiches and salads.
Those entities also appear on the Web site, allowing residents to see whether there may have been a problem in the kitchen at the grocery store where they purchase potato salad or fried chicken.
Food service providers are inspected at least once a year, and depending on the type of food they offer, may be inspected quarterly, said Ron Lund, an environmental health specialist with the health department.
Inspection reports are available from Jan. 1, 2008, forward, allowing diners to compare how the establishments performed in the past compared to the most recent report.
Violations are rated as either "critical" or "noncritical." Both entail a deduction of "points" earned for compliance, with critical violations penalized with a larger point deduction.
The details of each violation are outlined for site users who choose to view them, or users can simply look at the "star" rating system imposed by the health department to provide an "at-a-glance" view of how well safety standards were met. A four-star rating means the restaurant ranks within the top 25 percent in food safety. Lesser star rankings mean the restaurant ranks lower on the safety scale.
"Critical" violations are those "likely to lead to food-borne illness," Lund said, and include such things as mold growing on the ceiling, employees who fail to wash their hands, or food that is not adequately chilled.
"Noncritical" violations include such things as not having a CO tank secured to a wall or obstructions to walkways through the kitchen.
The Utah Restaurant Association and the Utah Food Industry Association are on board with the Web site, though officials with both organizations expressed some concern over the "star" rankings, Lund said.
Star rankings are often used by restaurant critics to rate the quality of both the food and dining experience, but the health department's star rankings reflect only the food and work safety conditions within the restaurant during the most recent inspection.
The expected popularity of the new site may pose its own set of challenges for health department employees. During a recent board of health meeting, some concern was expressed over whether the site would be able to handle the traffic generated by the announcement.
Though the site was up and working following the press conference Thursday morning, it was not accessible for some time Thursday afternoon.