How does your favorite restaurant make sure the food they serve you meets the highest of safety standards?
That’s a question you may not always think of — but is worth asking.
Minot facilities that serve food to the public must meet certain standards referred to as the food code.
Environmental Health Practitioner Jayme Calavera says this includes:Dining out? Check out how you can know if your food is safe to eat.
Trust your sense of smell as your personal food safety expert. But don't trust too much — even food that still smells okay can be spoiled. Take a look. If you see obvious discoloration in rotting food, such as green meat or blue spots on bread, throw out that food.
“Proper storage temperature in the refrigerators, cooking temperatures that they are being cooked at the right level to ensure that the food is safe. We look for things like handling of the food, good handwashing on the part of the employees. We look for glove use to prevent bare hand contact with the food.”
Those are just some of the things that are checked at food establishments and according to Calavera, the frequency of these inspections depends on the risk level of the facility and the level of complexity associated with the food they make.
Food trucks will likely be inspected once a year while dine-in restaurants that serve chicken, beef or pork could be checked twice a year.
Inspectors score facilities as being in compliance or out of compliance with the food code. They can also be scored on whether a facility is a repeat offender.
“They start with 100 and if they score below 70 they get reinspected and if they score below 60 they get closed,” Calavera said.
In North Dakota, these scores are not displayed at the facilities, although they are available by request to the public.