Sergio Bichao

@sbichao

PLAINFIELD – Every year an estimated 48 million Americans get sick and 3,000 die as a result of foodborne illnesses, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say cost the economy as much as $14.1 billion a year.

Food safety is serious business, which is why New Jersey, like other states, regulates retail food handling and mandates annual inspections of restaurants, cafeterias and stores that serve meals or sale prepackaged foods.

But in this Union County city, the status of restaurant inspections might be hard for some diners to stomach. City officials say they are taking action.

For the past several years, just a fraction of the city's eateries have been visited annually by an inspector. In many cases, restaurants and grocery stores have gone years without being inspected, a Courier News and Home News Tribune investigation found. The ignored businesses include restaurants that handle so-called "potentially hazardous foods," such as fish and poultry, which can harbor toxic microorganisms if not stored or prepared properly.





City catching up

The list of ignored sites includes school cafeterias, soup kitchens and a nursing home.

In one case, the newspapers found a fried chicken restaurant — Crown Fried Chicken on West Front Street — that was last inspected in 2009.

The newspapers also found that many records for 2012 were missing or did not exist without explanation.

Sometimes there was no record of a required follow-up visit of a restaurant that failed to pass an initial inspection because of gross or potentially unsafe conditions. For example, an inspection in 2012 of Royal Fried Chicken reported that the bathrooms "had poor general cleanliness" and what the inspector believed looked like pigeon feces on the kitchen floor (an employee explained to the inspector that it was dried chicken seasoning).

A 2011 inspection of the Twin City Supermarket found that a walk-in fridge was rusty and moldy and raw and bloody meats were stored on a shelf above a shelf of vegetables. A cook was seen using his bare hands to mix a bowl of beans and cheese. A fly trap was located above fruit platters. And human feces was smeared all over a toilet and floor of the men's restroom, which the inspector said was immediately cleaned.

The lack of inspections was one reason the city in May hired a fulltime health officer for the first time in years. The hiring was a rare example of accord between Mayor Adrian Mapp's administration and the City Council, which often are at odds.

Last year the city's health division was overseen by a county official, who worked just several hours a week in Plainfield.

"The services being provided were not anywhere close to what was needed," Mapp said last week. "We inherited a mess as a result of a lack of leadership. It will take some time for us to be able to make it right. We are taking all the necessary steps and, one by one, will make sure all of the restaurants in our city are eventually inspected."

A review of health inspection records found that last year city inspectors visited just 71 establishments, or 21 percent of a total of 340 locations. Ten of those restaurants did not pass an initial inspection.

In 2011, inspectors visited 111 establishments, or 34 percent of a list of 325. Of those, 19 did not pass an initial inspection.

Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said local health departments are required to conduct inspections at least once a year.

"The concern would be are they storing, preparing and serving food in a safe manner," she said last week, adding that the department would "look into" the situation in Plainfield "and, if appropriate, take enforcement action."

City Health Officer Denise Proctor said her office already has taken action by nearly doubling the number of inspections conducted in the first six months of this year compared to last year. The division plans to inspect every establishment by April.

To do this, the city has hired a part-time inspector and will hire another part-time inspector, which would give the division one fulltime and three part-time inspectors, who also investigate summer camps, pools and public health nuisances as well as a host of other duties.

"Our goal with increasing inspections is to promote and increase the likelihood that safe practices will be adhered to at all times," Proctor said last week. "Conditions at the time of inspection do not predict future conditions. That is why we encourage consumers to use common sense and best judgment when they frequent any food establishment, regardless of inspection date."

Proctor said she is unaware of any foodborne illness outbreaks in the city.

Local health inspectors visit restaurants and stores with a check list of nearly three dozen safety rules. The state's Sanitation Code regulates how hot food must be cooked (145 degrees for fish, pork and meat; 155 for ground meat; 165 for poultry), and how cold it must be stored (41 degrees or below). Employees must wash their hands in a dedicated hand washing sink and owners are required to post a sign reminding workers to wash their hands. Cooks are not allowed to touch food with their bare hands. And workers must use a three-compartment sink to wash dirty dishes: first in soapy water, then hot water, then chlorinated water, and then air dried.

Establishments can receive one of three ratings, which must be posted in a place visible to customers: satisfactory; conditionally satisfactory, which means the eatery failed to adhere to several rules; or unsatisfactory, which means inspectors found at least one violation that constitutes "gross insanitary or unsafe conditions, which pose an imminent health hazard."

Restaurants rated conditionally satisfactory can stay open but are subject to an automatic, unannounced follow-up inspection. Restaurants that are rated unsatisfactory risk being shut down.

Inspectors generally try to have managers correct mistakes on site.

Hunterdon County Health Officer Karen B. DeMarco said her inspectors visit all 700 retail food establishments in the county at least twice a year. All the ratings are posted on the county website.

In Ocean County, which employs 7 fulltime and a number of seasonal part-time inspectors, nearly 3,000 establishments are inspected every year. The county's inspection ratings also are posted on the county's website.

Ocean County Assistant Public Health Coordinator Matt Csik says inspectors will prioritize visits to higher-risk restaurants, such as those that serve sushi or raw fish.

"We try not to let those slip through," he said last week.

The health departments of Somerset and Middlesex counties, which handle inspections of most of their municipalities, do not post their ratings online.

More inspections online

Bernards, Bernardsville, Chester, Long Hill, the Mendhams, Peapack-Gladstone

Camden County

Monmouth County

Sussex County

Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@MyCentralJersey.com