Indicator: Food Service Safety

 

Definition: Percent of permanent food service establishments that received a routine inspection and were found to have fewer than 36 critical violation points. Follow-up inspections and temporary food service establishments are excluded.

 

Why is this important:  Inspection of food service establishments has been shown to reduce the risk factors associated with food-borne illness. Critical violations involve important food safety items such as proper heating and cooling, cross contamination, hand washing, and proper food storage. Food service establishments with a high level of violations pose the highest risk for causing food-borne outbreaks.

 

Where are we: In 2008 in Spokane County, there were 2,624 routine inspections of food establishments. Of those, 92% did not exceed the set level of critical violations. The proportion of Spokane County inspections below the critical violation threshold was similar to that of Washington State in 2008.