Eateries opt out of grades
County inspections find major issues, but public marks remain optional
Yasu Sushi Bistro is one of the best Japanese restaurants in the Valley, according to food critics and hundreds of online customer reviews.
Jack Past is among its admirers, dining at the upscale restaurant near Paradise Valley Mall dozens of times over the years.
“If we wanted to have a nice sushi meal, we’d usually pick that one,” said Past, 55. “And we eat a lot of sushi.”
Despite being a regular, he was unaware Yasu had been closed twice because Maricopa County inspectors found it couldn’t store food at proper temperatures. Inspectors found raw tuna that was up to 10 degrees warmer than is deemed safe by the county. Yasu signed a settlement agreement with the county after its second suspen-
sion; it stipulated that the restaurant develop a policy for keeping food at its proper temperature, attend a training session and pay a $515 fine.
According to an Arizona Republic analysis of Maricopa County Department of Public Health data since January 2016, the county temporarily closed more than 300 food establishments because health inspections revealed “an imminent public health threat” that couldn’t be fixed during the inspection.
Past also didn’t know Yasu had opted out of receiving letter grades from inspectors for all but one of their visits during the past three years. Participation in the county’s grading system is entirely voluntary.
The Republic analysis found 40 percent of routine inspections of foodserving establishments in the past three years weren’t graded. Non-graded inspections made up 62 percent of the inspections that found priority violations, the most serious violations.
One health-inspector visit to Yasu, in 2017, would have yielded a D grade, the county’s lowest mark, because the official witnessed multiple violations, including a sushi chef washing his hands without using soap after handling raw fish.
“Sushi restaurants in particular, because they deal with raw fish, should be held to a higher standard,” Past said, “and ... I’m surprised those (graded) inspections are voluntary. That’s disappointing. I think if they are going to go in and get inspected, the grade should be posted. That’s the whole incentive for them to operate and make their restaurants clean and healthy.”
The restaurant didn’t return multiple requests for comment.
Failed inspections, no bad grades
Nearly a third of the Phoenix-area’s 23,000 active food-permit holders received a priority violation in more than one routine inspection, the Republic analysis found. Most of these violations are corrected at the time of the inspection, but experts say consumers should be cautious of restaurants with checkered inspection histories.
More than 4,300 of these repeat offenders opted out of receiving a grade for the issues inspectors found on multiple occasions. Those included an inspection last year of Shaanxi Chinese Restaurant, which found 12 priority violations, the most in any single inspection in the county’s database.
“I believe that your health departments have a purpose, and that’s to not just ensure the safety of the public, but to make sure regulations are being followed and that everything is done to a certain standard,” said Karen Jorgensen Kornman, an expert with Arizona Food Safety Specialists, which consults with restaurants on health standards. “If (restaurants) are allowed to opt out, my opinion would be it’s because they know they have problems. Would they rather have no grade, or a C or a D?”
Closures were relatively rare, and a disproportionate share involved mobile food vendors, such as food trucks and push carts.
The establishments suspended the most, according to the Republic analysis, were mobile food vendors Tacos California and D’Hidalgo Food, each suspended three times for failing to store food at or below the 41 degree standard. In one inspection of D’Hidalgo in 2016, inspectors measured food at around 60 degrees.
Neither vendor could be reached for comment.
For some restaurants, a graded inspection only occurred when the county found no issues. For example, Yasu’s one graded routine inspection received an “A,” while each of the others had priority violations.
Andy Linton, division manager of the county’s Environmental Health Division, said his organization tries to be as transparent as possible by posting inspection results to its website.
“Regardless of any grade that we would give someone, all of the inspection information is still 100 percent available,” he said. “In theory, the public is still going to be able to even calculate their own grade.”
Operators in schools and day care facilities were less likely to opt out of the grading system, but some still failed to meet county health standards on numerous occasions, according to the analysis.
The county suspended the food permit of A Child’s Place at the Ranches, a day care in Gilbert, for four days in 2017 because inspectors found “unopened milk, unopened cottage cheese, sliced American cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, butter, opened cheese sauce, bologna meat and turkey meat holding at 50-51 degrees,” and the kitchen’s only refrigerator wasn’t working properly. The day care, which declined a request for comment, also had priority violations in half of its eight routine inspections during the past three years, three of which weren’t graded.
Linton said inspectors focus most on repeat offenders and work to get them trained on safe food-handling practices. If all else fails, the county moves to revoke the establishment’s license, as it has 34 times in the past three years, according to a department spokesman.
“It’s important for the public to understand that when we go in and we find a priority violation, we’re taking a picture of that moment in time,” he said. “Our goal is really to gain long-term correction.”
You can’t see some serious issues
The most serious violations are often issues patrons can’t see. For example, the presence of cockroaches or other bugs and rodents isn’t considered a priority violation.
But if a restaurant stores raw meat or eggs above a salad, or stores foods at the wrong temperature, county inspectors could move to shutter them immediately.
Dwayne Allen, co-owner of the Breadfruit & Rum Bar in downtown Phoenix, has been an outspoken critic of restaurant health ratings and the way they are publicized. He said the county should revisit its classification of priority violations because some may not warrant a serious designation.
“It would behoove the health department to really revisit the 1-2-3 scale of violation,” he said. “And really add some nuances to it if they intend for people to use the data.”
Meanwhile, when inspectors found roaches five times, along with a forged pest-control receipt, at one Salvadoran restaurant in Phoenix, they didn’t issue a priority violation for the presence of bugs.
If an establishment is infested with pests, the county can suspend its permit, although that rarely happens, Linton said. County data shows only two such incidents during the past three years.
County inspectors found hundreds of food operators had either live or dead cockroaches in their establishments, although these businesses faced few repercussions. The county found roaches during seven visits to a Mesa buffet, including under a bag of potatoes and near the sushi prep station.
Neither the buffet’s nor the Salvadoran restaurant’s food permits were suspended.
While a restaurant may not receive a priority violation for insects or rodents, establishments can receive one if they fail to properly store insecticide or other pest-control chemicals, Linton said.
Even though these violations aren’t emphasized as much as priority violations, experts said they could speak to the cleanliness of restaurants.
“If I walk into a food establishment and there’s dirt on the floor or if I see signs of insects, I just walk out,” said Pat Buck, executive director and founder of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention.
Grading system is voluntary
Linton said the county’s food code is largely based on federal standards. But the grading system the county has used since 2011 is unique.
In addition to priority violations, the county has two other categories of infractions:
❚ Priority foundation, which is “a minor violation that does not directly contribute to an increased risk of foodborne illness but failure to correct this violation may lead to the occurrence of a priority violation.”
❚ Core, which is “a minor violation that relates to general maintenance and sanitation.”
Maricopa County developed its system to emphasize the most serious violations. “A” grades are given to establishments with zero violations of priority or priority foundation standards. Permit holders can be knocked down a grade for violating four or more core standards.
Food operators decide at the beginning of an inspection whether they would like a formal grade.
About 5,500 active permit holders had no formal grades for any routine inspection during the past three years. Among them, Mesa’s Mekong Palace Restaurant hasn’t had a graded inspection in three years, including three inspections that found at least eight priority violations. Inspectors found mold on cheese and a cutting board, as well as “dead fish and large build up of debris in live fish tanks used for live fish slaughter.”
Linton said the voluntary grading system reflects the results of a county survey, and no changes are planned.
Kornman, the restaurant consultant, said voluntary grading systems give restaurants too much power. “In general, the public prefers to have the ratings. I think it’s an important factor to people whether or not they are going to go into a restaurant,” she said.
Allen’s Jamaican restaurant has opted out of the grading system on four of its 10 routine inspections. He said it didn’t serve a purpose for the restaurant or its patrons.
“Nobody’s ever asked why we don’t participate,” said Allen, whose restaurant violated four priority standards during three inspections in 2016, but none since then. “That we run a clean restaurant that is in compliance is a baseline. That is par, and we don’t want credit for par.”
Is the system fair to restaurants?
Allen said while county inspectors often do a good job, how they judge restaurants can vary. For example, he said, the county forced him to install a backflow device under his bar, even though it had been operational for years without issue or penalty.
Consumers should realize these inspections are a snapshot in time, he said.
The inspection doesn’t “represent accurately how that business is run, how they maintain their kitchen or space in general,” Allen said. “There is no context for why you went from an A to a B.”
Allen said news media reports that call out individual failed inspections do more harm than good. Patrons should look at the historical records to see which restaurants continuously fail their health inspections.
The Republic’s analysis found 2,800 permit holders who had at least one priority violation in the majority of their routine inspections.
Allen also cast doubt on the validity of inspection findings, saying ethnic restaurants may get penalized more often because inspectors don’t fully understand the cuisines.
“A lot of the cuisine that comes from elsewhere is going to be far more complicated, it’s going to have more ingredients, you’re going to have ingredients that people are unfamiliar with,” said Allen, who noted inspectors haven’t been familiar with some food his restaurant serves. “How can you make sure that I am in compliance with this thing that you don’t know what it is?”
The county has multiple foreign language “liaisons” for Spanish- and Chinese-speaking food operators and inspectors who speak other languages, Linton said.
“Maricopa County has been pretty progressive in this area,” Linton said.
Linton said while there is room for interpretation in the food code, food operators should know they can question the results of inspections and speak to supervisors about problems.
“We do come across things, or operators will bring things to our attention, that maybe we’re looking at a little bit differently across offices or across two different inspectors, so we want to bring uniformity to that,” he said.
County can take legal action
Suspensions aren’t the only action the county has pursued against food permit holders. More than 2,100 establishments received notices they could be sanctioned, often for a pattern of violations that could lead to revocation of their permits.
Among them was the Artizen restaurant in Phoenix’s four-star Camby Hotel, which was threatened with legal action after it displayed a “pattern of noncompliance.” During five separate visits, inspectors found food in the restaurant past its use-by date.
The county can threaten legal action if a permit holder has failed the same priority standard during three consecutive inspections. An operator then has the option to enter a class to show he or she will no longer violate that standard. But if the same violation is found on the next inspection, the county can move to revoke the establishment’s permit.
“We really try and intervene early on,” Linton said. “If it’s getting to the point where it’s at a pattern of non-compliance, hopefully at that point we’ve done everything we possibly can to try and intervene.”
Operators can enter a settlement that spells out requirements that need to be met during a certain period, typically three months, Linton said.