Restaurants score poorly in federal study of food safety; let's publish those inspection reports

Is it safe to eat at the restaurants in your town? According to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answer is a resounding "No." The study asked managers of several hundred restaurants in nine states about "storage and preparation of ground beef, chicken and leafy greens and the hygiene practices of food workers," Kathryn Roethel reports for the San Francisco Chronicle. "About 48 million people a year in the United States come down with food-borne illnesses, and more than half of those illnesses can be traced to food from restaurants, delis, banquet halls and schools," according to the report. (Chronicle photo by Penni Gladstone)

The study found that 80 percent of restaurants don't test ground meat with a thermometer to see if it's properly cooked, and more than 50 percent don't test chicken, Roethel writes. Sixty-two percent of workers don't wash their hands after handling raw meat, 40 percent of restaurants don't designate a specific cutting board for raw chicken, and 20 percent of workers said they worked a shift in the past year when they were sick with vomiting or diarrhea.

On the positive side, it's much safer to order a salad in a restaurant, with 93 percent of restaurants keeping "purchasing records so they could trace where their greens came from in case of an illness-related recall, and 65 percent reported rejecting shipments if greens looked decomposed," Roethel writes. "However, a majority of greens delivered to restaurants came in at temperatures above the proper 41 degrees Fahrenheit."

The study found that chain restaurants performed better than independent restaurants, Roethel writes. (Read more) To read the full report click here. Sounds to us like a good reason to run restaurant-inspection reports in the newspaper; more than a third of U.S. meals are obtained outside the home.