Selects: How Restaurant Health Inspections Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hi everyone it's Josh here and for this. week's select I've chosen our episode on. restaurant inspections it may just put. you off eating at restaurants ever again. I know it did for me I haven't eaten in. a restaurant since we released this. episode and that was back in. 2017 hold on hold on everyone I'm. sorry okay uh everyone Apparently that. is not true I do still eat at restaurant. rests who knew but at any rate I hope.

you enjoy the stomach churning. [Music]. select welcome to stuff you should know. a production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark there's Charles W Chuck. Bryant and there's Jerry Roland put the. three of us in the room together with. some raw chicken and some old mop water.

you got yourself stuff you should know. so gross so Chuck have you ever like. been to a restaurant and seen something. that you weren't supposed to see and. been like oh I just ate here I used to. work at restaurants as you know and uh. you know some of them were pretty gross. I worked at a couple myself and I never. saw anything that I was like this is. wrong but it I I've realized over the. years that that I'm in the minority in. that sense dude my first job at a as a.

bus boy that was one of I saw some of. the most horrific things in my. life mainly because they. had oh. man it was the people that work there. they were dirty folks they were dirty. folks and they were just um they they. were people that didn't care about their. own personal health and hygiene in any. way yeah it was all gross gross gross I. saw a guy time should I even say this.

yes please dish and you're talking about. kids working in the kitchen that are. gross like Drop High School dropouts and. hey I'm not knocking you if you dropped. out of high school okay go get that GED. and and keep at it that's right but. these were not those people they. couldn't they couldn't even spell. GED right they're like I didn't get my G. yeah so these people they were gross. people and I was 13 and I couldn't speak. up I didn't know like I'm not going to. go to the owner of the restaurant on at.

13 cuz he didn't care but I saw one of. these dishwashers go into a walk-in. cooler and he was so mad about the. schedule that they put him on he. took uh the lid off of a big you know 15. gallon pot of Brunswick stew oh no and. he put his his shed foot in leg into it. no all the way to the bottom and then. took it back out.

and let me tell you man those shoes I've. never had more disgusting clothing in my. life than the clothes that I worked in. at a barbecue restaurant I know they're. like the whole reason Crocs are in. business is because it's the only thing. that won't slide across the greasy dirty. floor of every single restaurant in. every single City in the entire world. everything about that job was disgusting. they would drop meat on the ground and. say good catch and laugh and then pick. it up off the floor oh man it was like. it was like up to in Sinclair's uh the.

Jungle the jungle like right before my. little 13-year-old eyes I grew up on. that job in many many ways the only way. that it could have been more like the. jungle is if somebody actually died in. the Brunswick stew and they just kept. them in there it was so foul dude that's. groy man I don't even know what our. restaurant inspection score was I didn't. even I saw nothing like that at the. restaurants I worked at I worked at a. handful of them nothing like that yeah I. worked at a bunch more and it was.

nothing like that this was so that the. worst of the worst oh my God they're all. burning in hell now that's so gross I. drove by that place the other day on the. way to uh Emily's parents I went a. different route and now it's like a uh. ch-- a Title Max oh okay which I don't. even know what that is you comp your car. title there for extremely exorbitant. interest rates gotcha well well the. ghosts of uh of rednecks past dwell. within those floors wow man was the. barbecue any good I guess it's a moot.

point right I still ate there oh dude. after the shoe thing yeah man I didn't I. was a kid I didn't know I mean I didn't. have Bruns du that day okay good or ever. again I don't know I just I didn't know. any better I was dumb you ate the. Brunswick stew Chuck didn't you I got a. lot smarter after. that well um I again I've never seen. anything in person but I have I've been. on the internet and seen things like. that guy who peed in the coffee every.

day uh but I think that was at an office. not a restaurant there's like this um. laundry list of fingers being found in. food I saw an article I think on like. MPR or something and it was like a just. basically the top five times fingers. were were found in in food at. restaurants and happens a lot yeah and. just quickly I should say that there I. feel bad for restaurant owners sometimes. especially at places like that that it's. not like some nice kind of place in.

town you can do all you can do but you. still can't account for some. little jerk employee that's mad about. something that wants to spit in. someone's food on camera yeah you know. yep you can't just you can't watch. everyone 100% of the time and that's. usually what is a case like that like. this dumb dishwasher kid he just goes in. the walkin says watch. this right and there's there's I saw um.

like there's a case to be made then for. not hiring young people yeah you hire. people who have like built a um a. background for themselves like a a. career for themselves already those are. called good restaurants right that's the. difference yeah I guess that is the. difference so in a sense it's very much. the owner's fault for being a cheap. bastard and hiring people who put their. shoed foot in the Brunswick stew um okay. so my point is this Chuck that the shed.

foot fingers in the uh in in at arb's. like all these little things that that. are just horrible and horrific and. disgusting would be vastly worse and. vastly more frequent were it not for a. lone group of people The Thin Blue Line. Between Us and utter chaos when it comes. to restaurants the health inspector yeah. this was I'm so excited about this. episode yeah oh it's going to be a good.

one man like I don't know when you sent. it over I was like all right but then I. started reading and it was interesting. and awesome and there's history to it. yeah and one of these consumer advocacy. shows that we love to do MH uh we're. doing our little uh our Ralph nater. impression man I love that guy Great. American he's the tops so restaurant. Health Inspectors uh are something of a. newish invention they're certainly not. really old.

um. because at least in the United States it. wasn't until that book you mentioned the. jungle uh was published in. 1905 that people like really sat up and. took notice and Congress acted almost. immediately passed the Pure Food and. Drug Act the next year that's the impact. that Upton St Clair's the jungle had. yeah rightfully so and in the book I. mean he he went undercover he was a. muckraking journalist God bless him and.

he went undercover to basically just. take notes on all the horrible things he. saw in the in the meat packing industry. and slaughter houses and he chronicled. all the inhumane things that he saw and. the way the animals are treated but he. also saw the inhumane ways the workers. were treated but it this his book had. this impact and um and Congress actually. acted and they created the the Pure Food. and Drug Act and one of the things that. came out of that was um what came to be. known as the food code the food code is.

basically like here are the things that. you should be doing in your restaurant. to prevent from running a foul of the. law or um creating foodborn illnesses. yeah and like previous to this states. were kind of taking care of their own. health uh issues as best they could on. their own but then when when that book. came out people were like wait a minute. they're shipping meat across state line. so the states aren't taking care of it. themselves right this meet's going out.

everywhere uh so it became a federal a. federal thing to be regulated and they. made a federal case out it well they did. and along with the Pure Food and Drug. Act uh very importantly the federal Meat. Inspection Act was passed in that same. year and um because I think everyone I. mean even back then like if you're. grossed out in 1906 mhm then uh they. weren't as sensitive as we are today so. there was some gnarly stuff going on. dude a guy falling into like a hot dog. grinder come on.

so the food codee um the early food code. that is was was sort of kind of the same. stuff that we see today generally um we. have refined everything over the years. with science as to what's truly. dangerous and not and how it gets. dangerous but even back then they were. concerned about like proper meat storage. and food storage and temperatures of. things and the hygiene of employees and. and the premises themselves yeah because. you know basically what constitutes good.

practices hasn't changed all that much. but to to respond to changes that do. come about um that do change best. practices or our understanding of the. science of like food born illnesses the. the uh food code was republished every. year starting in 1993 every two years. they updated it and republished it yeah. uh and then in 2001 they moved it to. four years but that that to me is like. that. friends is the reason we pay taxes yeah.

so that there are people who are going. around finding out the most Cutting Edge. understanding of how we get sick from. Foods at restaurants then also finding. out the exact ways to prevent this from. happening publishing it into a book and. distributing it to the states who then. put it into practice it takes money to. do this kind of thing but that's why we. pay taxes the next time somebody tells. you that they don't care about.

government regulations and that we live. in a nanny State you remind them of what. it would be like if they ate out at a. restaurant without this kind of stuff. yeah those people right we don't need. government regulating stuff all right. sir then you will be eating eyeball. right you'll be eating human eyeball in. your next uh Frankfurter right I will. feed it to you. myself uh so the food code today just. like that very first one back in 1934.

uh is is voluntary um it is not federal. law it is still up to those states to go. out and write their own rules H it. aligns generally with the federal. regulations and what the FDA recommends. uh and then it gets a little more. confusing because when it comes down to. actual restaurant inspections there is. no federal or state inspector that comes. in there it's the city or the county who. is going to be carrying this out and. they work with the state and then in. turn the federal government to kind of.

all be on the same page right yeah I. think it's almost kind of like the. government's the one who has the funding. to go actually look around and survey. and find the science and put these best. practices out but it's the the county or. the city where the where the the um. rubber meets the road the shoe the shoe. meets the pavement more like where the. shoe meets the Brunswick. stew that's so rotten not the Brunswick. stew that's like one of the best things. out a barbecue place uh let's take a. break shall we yeah and I'm going to go.

brush my tongue with a toothbrush okay. and I'll be right back all right. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Music].

okay and we're back and Chuck let me. smell your breath how's that man that is. nice the Listerine yeah if I do detectiv. is that uh Tom's toothpaste you. used no. okay what toothpaste do you use I use uh. I'm using Crest right now which one the. orange one no that's my favorite yeah so.

the the the color of the packaging is. orange but the type of mint it's like. called citrus mint but you would never. if you didn't see that you wouldn't be. like oh this is citrus mint it's just. its own type of very pleasant mint. flavor sensation yeah I just use the. regular uh not not the white but I think. it's like the blue mhm Crest right now. and pro health I think yeah yeah Pro. Health and then a dude used the list now. I've been on that for a solid couple of.

years yeah uh because it's six in one. six benefits in one right why are we. talking about this I don't know man. we're not even getting paid for that. maybe mine is maybe mine is aqua fresh. it's either aqua fresh or Crest. whichever one makes Citrus man that's. what I use but do you remember aim oh. yeah what was that so that stuff I think. it's still around it actually doesn't do. anything as far as brushing your teeth. goes as far as toothpaste goes but. remember it came out in three different.

colors like uh green red and white and. it was just pretty but it's bad tooth. space I I don't I'm not a big fan of it. but I love looking at it how about that. yeah I remember that yeah uh all right. so back to food inspection now that our. mouths are clean mhm uh there are. usually three kinds of food safety. inspections you got you got your rag the. one that's done on the rag right it's. known as a routine inspection and that's. the one where they come in might be. every 6 months might be every year and a.

half or so depending on some stuff we'll. get to here in a bit and that's the one. where you go in and you just see the. thing on the wall that gives it the. score that's the one where you're. working in the restaurant and the and. the owner and the manager freak out. they're like oh God no no they do the. second they walk through the door uh. although I will say in New Jersey where. I worked at the store in Basking Ridge. New Jersey M we were always great they. took it really seriously yeah every time. the inspector came by they were like. come on in that that's the way it should.

be it's a big shout out to the store in. Basking Rich New Jersey way to go to the. store that place is great and that's how. and they had a restaurant group and they. had like six restaurants and they were. all done the right way I don't think you. could really have a Restaurant Group. without approaching food inspection and. and health standards in that way too. yeah I mean it's just dumb not to and. from what I saw too um we also kind of. did you read that menal floss article I. sent oh yeah so one of the things it's. called 12 secrets of restaurant health. and spcs one of the things they point.

out is that usually the bigger the chain. so whether it's a restaurant group on up. to a global chain like you know one of. those guys sure oh wow cheeks buddy. um you're probably going to see. something close to a 100 every time and. the reason why is because they have a. lot of skin in the game they have a lot. to lose right if like they pointed out. with Chipotle like there were one or two. locations of Chipotle where um that some.

bad cilantro got some people sick with. ecoli but all Chipotle suffered as a. result people just stopped going they. lost hundreds of millions of dollars and. um came probably pretty close to to. going under there for a little while and. I think they're still definitely clawing. their way out from under it so they. don't just rely on state county or city. Health Inspectors they do their own they. hire their own third parties to come in. and and Carry Out inspections much more.

frequently than the the um government's. doing just to make sure that they're up. to standards yeah so your your local. fast food chain is more likely to be. super clean than the mom and pop in in. theory but in my opinion you're also. more likely going to find the kid in the. kitchen that goes hey watch this yeah. yeah it's definitely a trade-off and. that's that's yeah because it's. definitely not to say that you know Mom. and Pop places are are inherently unsafe. if it's a family business you're you. have just as much skin in the game is a.

global global restaurant chain because. this is your family's livelihood so yeah. you're going to take it seriously uh so. getting back the other two types of. inspections real quick besides the. routine are the follow-up um. investigation where they they do say. like all right you need to fix these. things I'll be back next. Thursday um or I'll be back tomorrow. depending on what's going on right or. I'll shut down your restaurant while you. fix this stuff it's so bad uh and then. there are inspections uh that are. triggered by a consumer.

complaints yes that's the one where they. like um use the bat signal but instead. of a bat it's like a fork in the sky and. then the restaurant inspector swoops in. is like I'm here I'm here everybody calm. down yeah so I mentioned that people uh. restaurants will be inspected maybe. every six months maybe every year a year. and a half they are it's not willy-nilly. they are assessed a risk factor as an. establishment by the county or or the. you know whatever local municipality is. carrying this out mhm and that has to do.

with a bunch of things um sometimes it's. the kind of food like if you're serving. Sushi you might get inspected a little. more sushi sushi cuz you're serving raw. fish I didn't say sushi that time sushi. that time did I no no no oh no that's. Steve Bru Steve Brule shushi sandwichi. sandwich I thought you I thought it was. my uh my missing tooth no um or if. you're cooking meat or whatever raw meat. you might get inspected a little more. than a deli that just has you know.

preprepared meats and Foods yeah like. that those cold cuts are already cooked. it's not like you're they're serving you. raw turkey slices like it's already. cooked they're just putting it together. onto a sandwich yeah that's a lowrisk um. restaurant comparatively speaking Yeah. you know always get to me even though I. love a euro is when I see the see the. thing on the spit next to the heat lamp. rotating around right I always just. think how how safe is that. uh I would guess if it's operating in.

the United States safe safe enough okay. that's the whole point of restaurant. inspectors so you don't have to ask that. question that you can look at that and. say somebody who knows what they're. doing has inspected that and determined. that that is not a threat to my health. maybe it just creeps me out to look at. it no I'm with you I understand I also. want to say there are some places where. you go in and you're like this is. clearly in violation of some health. codes I have no idea how this place is. allowed to stay like this but it's still.

worth it and I would direct you to ANS. an's ghetto burger oh yeah right by your. house yeah that's just down the street. yes have you have you had one I've never. had an ANS because I thought that she. left and it closed but it's still going. is she still running it do you know I. don't know she she had been threatening. to like retire for 20 years or something. but I knew she wanted to get bought out. and didn't want to just close it down so. hopefully she was able to retire that's.

that's my hope all I know is the Wall. Street Journal said it was I think it. may be the best hamburger in the United. States The Wall Street Journal ain't. lying you know yes U but if you go there. that's. like decades worth of Grease just on the. the vent around the or the backsplash. like the stainless steel backsplash or. whatever splatter guard Behind The. Griddle and you're like there's how. dides she how did she get away with that. and then you take a bite of it and. you're like oh cuz it it matters not at.

all compared to this. burger uh well maybe she is compliant. because that is the second risk factor. uh involved with how often you're going. to get inspected which is if do you have. a a list of complaints or record of. violations on your record then you're. going to be on their frequent visitor. list right you know yeah yeah um and. especially if you've ever been the. source of a foodborn illness you're on. you're on the you're you're a high risk. autom atically yeah probably permanently.

yeah I would think so and depending on. where you are you know like you're going. to get lots of visits after that like. that's probably aside from maybe people. getting shot in your restaurant a food. born illness is probably the worst thing. that can happen in your restaurant yeah. I would guess um and you know whether. you're a new restaurant well if you're a. new restaurant in particular I should. say I think the standard is is that. depending on where you fall as far as.

what kind of restaurant you are whether. you're a deli serving cold cuts or a. sushi place serving raw seafood you're. assigned like an initial risk. assessment and then depending on that. risk assessment if you're a sushi place. say they're going to come visit every. three months for the first year or if. you're a uh a deli they might come once. every year and a half and then depending. on how you perform in the those. inspections those regular routine.

inspections that are basically. predetermined by the type of restaurant. you are that that schedule can either. diminish or increase so let's say that. Deli is found to to be in violation. pretty frequently every 18 months. they're going to start getting inspected. every 12 months or every six months yeah. or that sushi place that's getting. inspected every 3 months or 6 months if. they if it's just painfully obvious that. they are top-notch Pros who are taking. this quite seriously and never get. caught for anything then that three or 6.

months may end up turning into a year. who knows yeah uh you may have heard. reports on the news too that um food. inspectors have racist policies where. they will go after ethnic restaurants. more often no I hadn't heard that is. that right yeah I've seen I've seen. reports on stuff like that wow uh that. they get inspected more frequently if. you're like having an ethnic restaurant. that's pretty rotten uh but there is a. food safety expert at North Carolina. State named Ben Chapman that says. there's really no data to back that up.

he said but there could be biases. through Consumer complaint systems uh oh. I see and they did uh sort of just a a. snapshot from Yelp reviews which say. what you want about Yelp reviews they're. pretty much the worst thing ever right. but um if you look at Yelp reviews you. do a search for food poisoning and close. to 70% of the time they were ethnic. restaurants where people complained. about food poisoning so I see this food.

is weird it is possible I don't. recognize it that some bias comes in uh. through that but that makes sense then. Chuck like if if if Yelp is um a proxy. for the the number of times somebody. might call in um a complaint the that's. one of the ways that a food inspector. goes out to inspect a restaurant is when. somebody the public you know calls and. says something or complains um so yeah I. mean that that makes utter complete. sense um have you ever called and.

complained about a restaurant have you. ever called the health department no I. never have either and theyve actually. after researching this article I was. like there I I can think of at least one. time when I could have and should have. called just got undercooked chicken and. um Yi and I both got very sick for like. the whole weekend and I kept calling. this place like like what are you guys. going to do about this you have to do. something and um they just got less and. less interested the more frequently I.

called them by the by like the fourth or. fifth time I was like we're still. suffering I just wanted to let you know. we're laying around throwing up um and. they didn't do anything about it like. there was no um we're sorry there I. think they actually didn't believe me. maybe but now that I've read this I'm. like I totally should have called the. health department on those guys what. city was this it was in Atlanta I think. I remember that actually we got so we. were sick for an entire weekend pretty. nice place to right yes I I totally. remember that right across from uh where.

we used to uh work in buad actually and. they could not have cared less and. that's what ticked me off oh you were. calling the restaurant over and over Oh. I thought you called the health. inspector over and over no but now now. I'm like why wouldn't why didn't we just. call the health inspector now I would. call for sure now that I've done this. research because it's not. like like what you're doing is helping. other people from from bef from the same. fate befalling yeah you're not being a. rat right right which is another thing.

that Health Inspectors look out for all. right well let's talk about that when. you when this is how this goes down. they're unannounced visits like I said. so I worked at um I've worked at I don't. know like probably four or five places. over the years and two of them were. pretty bad the aforementioned barbecue. place and then where I worked on College. wasn't terrible but it wasn't great uh. it was a typical like college. Town Mexican joint um but it wasn't like.

the super professional other restaurants. that I've worked at but at those first. two places I remember when the. restaurant inspector walked through the. door a panic set in uh invariably the. one of the like the GM or whoever the. manager was would immediately confront. uh in a nice not confront but greet the. person and send you know the. understanding was someone go back to the. kitchen and and tell everyone that the. inspector is here and judging from that.

Mental Floss article you sent that's. exactly how it works and for that reason. the very first thing a good health. inspector does is kind of barge through. there and say I'm going straight to the. kitchen right this second right cuz they. know what's going on right that's they. have to or else a whole bunch of. violations get covered up really quickly. very quickly and so uh in that Mental. Floss article basically they said they. needed to do like a um a brisk like run. walk through the kitchen as fast as they.

could isn't that scary it is but it's. also to you you scals like what are you. doing like just stand there and freeze. that's what they should do is be like. everybody freeze and then like have. their finger and and thumb in the shape. of a gun because I don't think they're. allowed to actually carry guns well this. one health inspector in the middle floss. thing said we want to see the things. that won't be there in another 3 to four. minutes. right but that's the thing but I mean it. could be anything like there's there's. like um if you are sitting there making.

food and you have like a cup of coke. right uhhuh you're not supposed to have. that there yeah or and your cell phone. in the kitchen it's another big one to. I'll bet that is probably the most. frequent violation today they're covered. in poop do you ever see so like have you. ever just stopped and looked at people. on the street like with their phones. like they'll just be stopped mid. something like they have like a shovel. like propped up against their their. shoulder just looking at their phone.

with their mouth hanging open it's like. crazy we're turning into like a society. of zombies man how do you stare at your. phone I've seen you do that you do it in. a smarter looking way I do the thing. where I'm like stroking my chin. thoughtfully right your mouth is closed. exactly I've got like one eyebrow. arched all right so uh the first thing. they inspect obviously the kitchen the. the the manager the owner whoever is. there on point is with the inspector the. whole time. cuz they're saying like hey like little.

things like that ketchup bottle's. disgusting like why don't you go ahead. and have someone clean that up and I. won't dock you a point but just get it. clean and the guy wipes it down he's. like no that brand it's hunts I mean get. some hindes in here it's disgusting uh. but the first things they inspect are. the dynamic areas which are the kitchen. uh food preparation. areas. um basically anywhere where there's food. actively out is the the first place they. go right that's that's the static area.

or dynamic that's the dynamic okay and. then you start with 100 points by the. way I don't know if we mention that. which I think is kind of optimistic it's. saying like I want to believe the best. in you rest so everybody starts with 100. and then we start deducting from there. yeah then it just gets sad so um one of. the first things they're looking for is. employee hygiene because remember what. you mentioned like way back in when the. Food and Drug Act was created and the. food code was first established. um there were a lot of basic tenants.

that were were put forth back then and. one of them was your the people who cook. the food need to be clean as a whistle. yep and that's one of the big things. that the the health inspector is looking. for like are they wearing gloves which. by the way is not to say that if an. employee is wearing gloves that you're. totally covered um the gloves are. supposed to be a fail safe to good hand. washing yeah so you want them to be. washing their hands very frequently and. then wearing gloves on top of that but. then on top of that not doing things.

like TCH like using their cell phone. with the gloves on because you've just. automatically contaminated them and. totally defeated the purpose of using. gloves at that point right so there. there's a lot of hygiene things that are. are being taken into account but how do. you how do you tell whether people are. washing their hands when you're just. walking into a kitchen of course they're. going to wash their hands in front of. you in the way that they're supposed to. be but how do you know they're doing it. routinely Chuck well yeah and we should. say that there is a way you're supposed.

to wash the hands you don't rinse them. off and just dry them with the towel. that's sitting by the sink or just blow. on them you rinse you put on the soap. you scrub for 20 seconds then you dry. off with a one use towel an good old. unsustainable made out of tree paper. towel uh yeah or if you're a really. fancy restaurant you can just have like. cashmere towels laying around as long as. you throw them away afterward right you. have to throw them away uh but your. little trick I know where you were. leading how you can tell is this one.

very crafty restaurant inspector in the. midle floss article said they go in the. first thing they do CU it takes them a. couple hours at a just sort of a normal. siiz restaurant um four or five hours at. a big like Hotel restaurant mhm he said. he puts an x on the paper towels and if. he goes back at the end of his. inspection and that X is still in the. paper towel then he knows hands are not. being washed right very sneaky pretty. clever yeah yeah uh so I guess we just.

gave it away though so now all the. people are going to go check their paper. towel rolls I bet there are other ways. um yeah that was just a setup to nudge. them into the actual way he's he's sing. yeah like wash your hands um food is. another big one too right you want to. make sure that the food is being. properly stored and properly cooked and. apparently there is a danger zone um. between uh I think like zero and 140. that you want to hit or that you want to. stay outside of so basically you want.

your food especially like um raw meat to. be stored at a temperature Frozen right. or else kept at 40° Fahrenheit 40° C or. below for fridges um and then when you. cook it you have to cook it to at least. 160° internal temperature for Beef Pork. all those guys and then 145 for fish and. if a restaurant's not doing that that's. a big that's a big one as we'll see yeah.

I mean the best way to think about food. storage is without getting into the. specific temperatures is if it's. supposed to be cold or frozen it should. be cold or frozen if it's supposed to be. hot it should be hot is that middle. ground is where you're in big trouble. exactly they talked about lukewarm being. the big enemy right not not that's never. good lukewarm I'm trying to think of a. time when lukewarm is preferable with. anything no. um it just sounds gross I know I like my.

food really hot too yeah like that's the. one thing I will send something back is. if it's was clearly made a little. earlier than the rest of the party at. the table and it's sort of lukewarm I'm. like no man I want I want steam coming. off this thing yeah yeah that's they. throw in the microwave yeah they do and. then they're like oh I guess you want a. little spit on that too uh apparently. soup should be uh like the way you. reheat things is a big deal because. obviously the Brunswick doew you don't.

just throw it out every night you put it. back in the walk-in so some jerk can. step in it but uh when you bring soups. and broths back uh to heat you have to. reboil them entirely right from their. refrigerated state which makes sense but. that's never very good for um food if. it's already prepared once you reboil it. that's that probably you're just going. to want to throw that away then really. yeah man it toughens everything up or. else it overcooks it it's already been.

cooked once so when you bring it to a. boil you're really cooking it again and. for food born illnesses that's a good. way to to treat it but it doesn't. necessarily make for the most appetizing. food H all right I don't know if I agree. with that but that's all right that's. what I'm going with uh frozen meat you. don't just say uh hey Jimmy throw that. Frozen bird out on the table and leave. it there till this evening right but you. don't just leave food out to thaw there. there are proper ways of thawing and. bringing things back to the correct.

temperature right and then so let's say. you have a place where you're cutting up. that thawed chicken that was properly. thawed um and then you set the knife. down and somebody else picks it up and. they start cutting uh lettuce with it. that's cross-contamination that is. extremely dangerous because as you know. very few people cook their lettuce. before they eat it in a salad it's raw. and so now it has raw chicken juice on. the lettuce that you're eating raw and. uncooked and you can die from that um so.

cross-contamination is a big one they. they look for they also um it can be a. little more simple like with something. like um silverware from what I saw if. the silverware is dirty or smudgy um. that is a big problem because that means. usually that the whole kitchen is dirty. there's a lot of that's like a big red. flag that um apparently Health Health. Inspectors will will tell you that if. the silverware is dirty it usually is. indicative of just a a dirty restaurant. in general yeah um and I've always heard.

I don't know if it's an urban legend or. not but uh you know like the just the. plastic soda cups that like a lot of. restaurants will have MH um have you. ever heard that it's not possible for. them to get to the temperature needed to. kill any bacteria on them because. they'll melt. otherwise when you drink out of them. they've not really been sanitized from. before I have not heard that but as as.

someone who has worked as a dishwasher. you don't say well I'm going to wash. these things at this temperature you. just throw everything through there yeah. you don't have any choice in what. temperature this it's all prescribed for. you you're just basically putting them. on the tray and sliding them through. pulling the door down and then it washes. them and you lift the door up and pull. them out yes and I will say one of my. dreams though is to have one of those in. my home those I can't remember what. they're called but they are wonderful. it's pretty great yeah it just wases. everything like super fast. so that's the dynamic areas right yes.

there's also the static areas where it's. things like um well the dishwashing area. actually apparently is a static area it. doesn't change very much um where you. store cleaning products that kind of. stuff uh I guess you get points deducted. if your cleaning products or your toxic. chemicals are not in their marked. original package yeah that's not good. because you could they can be mistaken. for oil and vinegar or something like. that yeah and they're going to check the. static areas include a lot of things. that you don't think would even fall.

into the purview of a restaurant. inspector they're going to look at your. HVAC systems and your vents and your. smoke. detectors uh they're going to look at. your dining room and the floors and the. ceilings and your ceiling fans and your. dumpster behind and your grease trap. like they look at everything right which. is good and another one that they take a. look at that I think is probably a big. problem for restaurants in a lot of ways. are ice machines um the there's a lot of. parts to ice machines that are out of.

view this thing scared me in Mental. Floss now that can like grow mold pretty. easy and not just the ice machine right. where they're like scooping ice out. which is another thing too like there. better be an ice scoop right um it can. grow mold in the ice machine but also. those shoots where ice comes out of like. a like a beverage dispenser those are. usually serviced by the company that. that makes the beverages that it's. dispensing right and so it would be up.

to that company to clean those out which. means that they get even less attention. than the rest of the restaurant so the. next time you're uh getting like ice out. of beverage dispenser like get your. flashlight out of your pocket and look. up there uh and see if you see any mold. and then just raise holy hell if you do. yeah and I'm not a big fan of the Serve. Yourself soft drink stations anyway MH. for you know out there with the public I. don't think the public should ever have. access to something that's why well.

that's not the reason but buffets are. just so gross and creepy I haven't been. to a buffet in good Lord I don't know 20. years yeah I know but you should the. thought of a buffet I know they have the. sneeze guard but uh people like scooping. in and serving themselves their own food. from a trough M is so weird and gross. and archaic that I can't believe people. still do that well I mean also like even. if you're using like a a a spoon like a. serving spoon to to scoop something out.

which you are so did the person before. you right and that means you're touching. the same serving spoon and then going. back and using your hands to go eat so. you just touched whatever the other. person had on their hands and now you're. coming in contact with your mouth it's a. flawed system for sure it is because. what you're saying is I'm going to count. on the 300 people that have eaten here. today before me are all completely. hygienic all their hands have been. yeah Timothy poop hands isn't among them.

no one did a single gross thing like if. the tater tot fell off the spoon flicked. it back in with their finger uh like no. one did anything wrong at all I I just. no way not even at like Whole Foods or. someplace those are all gross to me oh. yeah Whole Foods would count with that. too huh although I do like to build your. own salad thing every once in a while. that's the exception good salad bar yeah. it's tough to turn down I'm with you. well let's take a break think a little. more about salads and uh we'll be right.

[Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. back you should.

all right we're back Charles let's talk. about Point deductions eh yes let's. remember we said that restaurant. inspectors are very optimistic and they. start out with a hundred it just goes. down from there and again you know since. these are done like City by city or. county by county like everybody has like. their own methods or whatever but. usually and I think the FDA um has. pointed out like there are five things. that you're really looking for five. general categories um.

improper um storage of food as far as. temperature goes yes inadequately cooked. food um equipment that's. contaminated sources that are unsafe uh. that are an unsafe supply of the. ingredients right so like if it turns. out like the goat is coming from their. Buddy's farm that might be a problem and. then personal hygiene of the uh people. who work there right right and so. depending on some of those um especially.

if there's multiple ones of these These. are big ones um they will probably be a. high priority type one or critical. violation any of those yes and then. there's also other ones where like this. is not that big of a deal but it's. definitely something that needs to be. paid attention to those fall after those. usually and it can be anything from like. a dented can that could conceivably. contain botulism but definitely hasn't. been proven to contain ISM being thrown. away to um there being a hole in the.

screen door that's left open for some. reason yeah and these uh as far as. deducting individual points that you'll. see in the wall when you walk in mhm and. if you don't look at that piece of paper. when you walk into a restaurant I don't. know what's going on in your brain you. should always do that sure um but like a. static violation like hey there were. some chairs that had bad legs your. ceiling fan was pretty dusty those would. be like a point each mhm maybe a couple. of points for a minor INF fraction like. you're cleaning product like I found a.

roach you know the did the the chef has. a cell phone in the kitchen that's a. couple of points MH all the way up to. four and five points and those that's. when you're talking about your your. fridge is broken and it is not up to. temperature and everything in there is. at risk and that's when they can. actually shut you down until you get it. fixed yeah which I got the impression. from this article that that is a it's a. rarity that the the health inspector. wants to air on the side of the. restaurant staying open and solving.

everything as quickly as it can while. also it's business not suffering. unnecessarily so if your if your. restaurant gets shut down temporarily. like that violation was significant. enough that that people were at an. immediate risk of getting sick from. visiting your restaurant exactly yeah. it's a big deal in other words it's as. bigger deal as you would think yeah but. with those Point deductions if you go in. and you see like a a 72. on a restaurant score sheet m it's.

probably not 28 individual small. violations right they're probably some. four and five pointers in there and you. should probably think about eating there. or you know it says in the art in this. article you can go to the website and. really break down because those aren't. for the public to necessarily be able to. digest easily but um if you do look at. them if you can get close to them you. can actually look and see the little. category for each thing um. um sometimes it's behind the register. they may not like you poking around well.

the the health uh Health departments. usually put them on uh the web these. days yeah that's what I'm saying like. you can investigate online okay but in. the restaurant itself it is marked it's. you know a bunch of tiny little letters. and categories and you can give it a. look and uh you know as long I wouldn't. spend too much time there like it just. go by that initial score and if you're. really like well I got to see what those. 18 points points were deducted for I. would just turn around and walk out.

right yeah especially if there's an. identical place like right across the. street yeah um but it that is a pretty. good point because when you think about. it most people just see that big score. prominently displayed whether it's like. a A or a b or a c or like a 85 or a 98. or whatever um and it's not really meant. to be. shorthand for the public I mean I guess. it isn't a way where it's like hey buddy. you're you're really taking a gamble.

here at like. 75 um but when it's really high up it it. does seem to be kind of an indicator. like this one's a okay in my book that's. not really what the restaurant uh. inspection report is supposed to be it's. supposed to be a lot more granular than. that and so to really tell whether. you're running a risk at eating in a. restaurant or not you actually do have. to go to the trouble of looking up what. the violations were and then even then. judging for yourself because short of. the health inspector deciding to shut.

the restaurant down and making the. decision for you that you can't go there. they're not they're not saying like. don't eat here like if it passes if it. passes inspection enough to say open. then as far as the County Health. Department's concerned it's good enough. for you to be eating there but that. might not really jive with your own. definition so to get that that. information you have to go find out what. their why points were deduced. yeah and you can't uh it's either the. Mental Floss or our own article point.

out that just because some place has a. bad rating doesn't mean they haven't. fixed things and it's fine now and just. because it has a great rating doesn't. mean they're not in violation that day. they're these inspectors come every six. months to a year for a couple of hours. during a lunch shift and it is a. snapshot of what occurred on that day. right so there is no like fail safe for. a consumer you just got to you know did. the best you can cross your fingers yeah. just roll the dice everything's okay in.

there or just cook at home and boil. everything including your lettuce o. boiled lettuce delicious what I'm just. kidding oh uh I didn't know if I was. missing out on something no no no uh you. got anything else on restaurant. inspections um just this one more little. tidbit from Mental Floss that I thought. was pretty great let's he uh is that. this one restaurant inspector oh yeah. said that he can smell cockroaches in. the air at this point yeah that's a real.

problem with cockroaches though don't. you think to be able to smell I guess. it'd be an infestation is what he's. smelling he said you can walk in take a. deep breath and he said it's kind of a. Nutty oily smell that you after years on. the job I can identify it he's like I. still get hungry every time I smell it I. got a lot of roaches in my house right. now and it's really pissing me. off it's a clean house you know it's not. gross it's just uh this summer was just.

real kind of muggy and dank and do you. have a lot of cardboard boxes in your. attic or basement no I don't know where. they're coming from like we see them. outside all over the place so sure I. don't maybe it's that uh Swale Pond from. the P permaculture episode maybe yeah. the permaculture lady was like I forgot. to tell you you're gon to have roaches. that's the only new thing right uh I. don't know man good good luck and godp. speed though go find the most. sustainable way to treat it I'll be. interested to hear what you come up with.

well so far it's been uh the flip flat. method a poor roaches no uh if you want. to know more about cockroaches or. restaurant Health inspections or. flipflops you can type those words in. the search bar houseof works.com and I. said that which means it's time for. listener. mail all right I'm going to call this a. great gross way to finish this gross is. podcast excellent hey guys wanted to. regail you with a story of how you two. contributed my Fant fantastic. relationship my wonderful girlfriend. last summer and fall I was traveling.

across the country camping going to. national parks and I wound up in Moab. Utah at Canyon lands and arches and uh. met a smart fun girl at a brewery and we. made a date to go hiking the next day uh. picture up and we went on a wonderful. little hike and disaster struck turns. out months of cheddar brought worse than. beer wasn't great for my digestive. system and I felt horrible and I had an. inescapable urge to take the Browns to. the Super Bowl. unfortunately I was miles away from Al. Le and I ran out of excuses to keep.

stopping and standing still for a moment. hey look at that Arch again my can't uh. so I had to tell her the horrible truth. on her first date and I was sure it. would ruin it uh eventually I made my. way to a bathroom shov some poor people. aside and uh safely made it back to town. but I was horribly embarrassed and sure. I had ruined everything uh on the way. back to town she asked if she could put. a podcast on and she played me your. episode about poop no nice how about. that she's got a good sense of humor.

great sense of humor never been as happy. to hear two men describing feal matter. uh at that point I knew anyone could. spin a date almost pooping in their. pants into an excuse to share their. podcast favorites as a keeper we've been. together over a year now we love. listening to your new episodes while we. hike and camp and po uh and poop I guess. they've got remember the love seat that. Saturday Night Live commercial where it. was like the two toilets facing each. other you could hold while you pooped. exactly uh couldn't be happier to find a. new favorite thing to listen to and a.

wonderful new girlfriend at the same. time so I want to thank you guys if you. ever get back to Denver maybe next year. we don't know yet um I'll be buying. tickets as soon as I hear the. announcement that is from Tom and he. said if you do read this on the air. please give a shout out to Alice nice. Tom and Alice yeah Way To Go Kids uh. thanks for writing in Tom nice. story uh if you want to get in touch. with us like Tom did um like it on us. send us an email to stuff podcast. iheartradio.com.

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