Melissa Nann Burke

The News Journal

About 46 percent of commercial kitchens in Delaware last year had at least one critical violation.

Delaware next year will begin requiring food-safety training for restaurant management.

The most common violations relate to holding foods at unsafe temperatures.

State might begin publishing notice online when it shuts down restaurants for sanitary problems.

A tray of cigarette butts on a food-prep table, mildew in the ice machine, and cutting boards stored on the floor.

Health inspectors found dozens of code violations at Port, a Thai and seafood bistro in Dewey Beach in recent years. Problems included storing foods at unsafe temperatures, having no soap at the employee hand-washing sink and no sanitizer in the dishwasher, according to state reports.

Many Delaware eateries score well on food safety, but approximately 46 percent of kitchens inspected last year had at least one critical violation. Sometimes, the problems are corrected on site. Other restaurants rack up repeat citations month after month and are never fined.

Rather than adopting stricter punishments for dirty kitchens, Delaware's inspection program has long emphasized education to encourage compliance among the 3,885 licensed establishments it oversees.

Public health officers work with restaurant owners, giving them multiple chances to voluntarily improve, rarely suspending or revoking operating permits.

Port's repeated violations did earn it a spot on Delaware's list of 15 high-risk restaurants, which receive more frequent inspections – three a year, at minimum – alongside kitchens serving especially vulnerable populations, such as hospital patients.

For the first time, the state next year will begin requiring food-safety training for restaurant management. Under the new regulations, restaurants must ensure at least one manager certified in safe food handling, storage and cooking is on site at all times.

"There really isn't a training requirement now," said Thom May, section chief for health systems protection in the Delaware Division of Public Health. "We're looking for them to build food safety into their product, rather than us 'inspecting' it in."

The requirement takes effect May 11. Public health officials hope it leads to increased quality control in commercial kitchens – from better food sourcing to employee cleanliness.

Statewide, the most common violations cited by inspectors relate to holding foods at unsafe temperatures; mislabeling ready-to-eat foods; or having contaminated food-contact surfaces, according to a News Journal analysis of state inspection data.

A database of restaurant inspections and violations in Delaware

"These are basic, common-sense sanitation standards that have been in force for a long time," said Sandra Eskin, director of food safety research at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"There's a trend, and the view is voluntary compliance – that it's more cost-effective to really work with violators and get them to improve, even if it takes a while."

At Port, a neighbor's complaint brought an inspector in on Sept. 22. The restaurant was cited for flies and odor at the outdoor trash area, and not having sufficient storage for refuse, officials said. The problems had been corrected upon re-inspection Sept. 30.

Mitchel King, Port's manager, said he expects the state will soon take it off the list of high-risk restaurants because its chronic issues were fixed, and his employees re-trained.

"It's not like the food was going out bad. Mainly equipment issues, and debris in areas that it shouldn't be. Now, we have checklists to guard against those things," King said.

"For us, it's been the same five things every time. I have to keep retraining my chef. He's set in his ways."

Few risks for customers

Nationally, half of all foodborne illness outbreaks are associated with restaurants, according to the Centers for Disease and Control.

Studies have shown that restaurants with food safety-certified kitchen managers are less likely to be associated with outbreaks than those without.

Restaurant managers currently have to "demonstrate knowledge" of food safety, if a Delaware inspector quizzes them. The new training requirement was prompted by federal regulators mandating certification in a 2013 update to U.S. food-safety rules.

"It's the right thing to do," said Carrie Leishman, president of the Delaware Restaurant Association, which offers the standardized ServSafe course established by the National Restaurant Association.

"It wasn't mandated in the past, but it was highly encouraged. That is something that we've been working on for years to get our members to get certified."

Finding certified instructors to teach in other languages can be a challenge. The University of Delaware Cooperative Extension was excited when it recently secured an instructor fluent in Mandarin to travel to Delaware to teach the ServSafe course, said Kathleen Splane, an extension educator.

"We're working to secure someone who speaks Spanish," Splane said. The training and exam cost around $150, and the certification is good for five years, she said.

Many Delaware restaurants already require certification for food-service managers, including Harry's Hospitality Group, comprised of Harry's Savoy Grill, Harry's Seafood Grill and Kid Shelleen's. Co-owner Xavier Teixido thinks the next level of training might mandate all food-service employees get certified.

He sees no downside to the requirement: Guests have greater confidence that they won't get sick. Employees stay healthy. Restaurateurs reduce their liability.

"Another piece of this is profitability. If you apply this to your purchasing, storage and handling, you should get better yields from your product," said Teixido, a past president of the National Restaurant Association.

"It's really risk management. We feed hundreds of thousands of people a year."

Improvements at Serpe's

Starting in May, state inspectors will begin checking managers' certification on routine visits to commercial kitchens.

The bulk of Delaware eateries are checked for compliance every six months. Greater scrutiny is paid to restaurants classified as high risk due to "patterns not only of noncompliance, but of unwillingness or inability to correct the issues," said Jamie Mack, director of community environmental health services for the state Division of Public Health.

Earlier this year, Serpe & Sons Bakery in Elsmere was reclassified as a high-risk facility, shortly before it received a rare warning letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for "serious" violations of food-safety rules due to unsanitary conditions, including filth and cobwebs built up in food-preparation and storage areas.

State inspection reports show Serpe's has since made improvements with some remodeling, more frequent cleaning and better pest control.

"All around, it's a cleaner environment," owner Dominic Serpe said. "Things are getting cleaned on a daily basis, rather than weekly."

Serpe said he'll be sending three or four employees next year for food-safety certification training.

"They'll have a better understanding of what cleanliness is, rather than being in a gray area," Serpe said. Now, "we have one person who's certified."

Delaware officials generally don't consider repeat violations to be grounds for revoking a permit. They'll shut down an eatery only when it poses an "imminent health hazard," such as lack of water, a large-scale pest infestation, sewage backups or an outbreak of foodborne illness.

Since August 2013, the state has closed 31 establishments. Two-thirds of those stemmed from an eatery operating without a valid permit, such as a convenience store run out of someone's home, May said.

Two of the actions were initiated after the FDA asked for the state's assistance in enforcement.

In September 2013, state and federal officials shut down the Fruit Bud Juice plant in Camden-Wyoming, which lacked an operating permit and had a malfunctioning pasteurizer, Mack said. The company later reopened, but was sold over the summer, he said.

In February, Roos Foods lost federal approval to sell its products after one person died and seven others were sickened by listeria on cheese from its Kenton plant. Some of the cheese processing has since been moved to Fierro Foods in Wilmington, Mack said.

Shutdowns unreported

The only way a customer might learn a Delaware restaurant was shut down is by showing up and finding a notice on the door, such as that posted July 31 on the door of Hibachi Sushi & Supreme Buffet off South Walnut Street in Wilmington.

The closure was prompted by "problems with sanitation throughout the facility," according to health officials.

It's common for health departments in other jurisdictions to publish closures, the reasons for the shutdown, and the date of reopening online.

Delaware does not. After an inquiry by The News Journal, May said the division is considering sharing similar information on its website for easier access and to "help further educate consumers."

Advocates of disclosure say it not only informs the public but encourages restaurants to fix problems, and can reduce incidents of foodborne illness.

"Shutdowns are serious," said Senate President Pro Tempore Patricia Blevins, who serves on the Senate's Health and Social Services Committee.

"That would be helpful to post restaurant shutdowns, and the reasons the restaurant was shut down. There should be a way for folks to find out."

Delawareans had poor access to inspection records themselves until a 2006 News Journal series about the program. After a push by Blevins and others, the state began posting online the most serious violations that inspectors find in restaurant kitchens.

Reporting backlog

The information available in the database remains limited, however. Inspectors are still writing their reports by hand in the field. The citations are later input manually into the state's computer network, officials said.

New data are supposed to be uploaded to the website weekly. As of last week, the database hadn't been updated since August. Mack says staff are working to catch up on the backlog.

The database lists each kitchen's name, address, inspection date and any high- or medium-risk violations.

In 2007, the division said it was working to upgrade the functionality of the online database to make it searchable by location and a kitchen's name, and to include the inspector's full report, which includes comments on compliance and needed improvements. The upgrade never happened. May said there's been no recent conversations about it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that consumers learn about a restaurant's most recent inspections before selecting a place to dine.

Smartphone apps such as FoodFumble allow consumers to download reports on the go in Texas and Oklahoma. The business-listing service Yelp offers a free data standard allowing any municipality to publish inspection scores to Yelp or other websites that provide restaurant listings.

Another revision to Delaware regulations this year mandates that each restaurant publicly post notice that its most recent health inspection report is available for review upon request. Previously, eateries did not have to disclose their results.

Consumers' only other option to obtain inspection reports is to make a formal request to the Division of Public Health – a process that can take 15 days. Even then, the handwritten reports are often difficult to read.

"It's [the new regulations] more transparent on both sides," May said. "They know there's a certain level of accountability now in their performance because the results are available to the public. And from our perspective, an informed public makes the best decisions."

The Delaware Restaurant Association did not endorse posting inspection results online, and Leishman has "mixed" feelings about the requirement to make reports available from the establishment upon request, she said.

"What most people don't realize is that you can get marked off for not getting a perfect score if you have something wrong that's not an imminent health concern, like a light bulb that's out," Leishman said. "That's not going to make someone sick."

Staff writer Patricia Talorico contributed to this report.

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke.

FILE A COMPLAINT

To file a complaint about a food establishment, contact the Environmental Health Field Services Offices for the county where the facility is located or call the Office of Food Protection at (302) 744-4546.

Most people don't report illness, but public health officials need to know about illnesses that may be caused by food, so foodborne outbreaks can be identified and stopped swiftly.

Environmental Health Field Services Offices:

New Castle County: University Plaza, Chopin Building, 258 Chapman Road, Newark, DE 19702 or (302) 283-7110

Kent County: Thomas Collins Building, 540 S. DuPont Highway, Dover, DE 19901 or (302) 744-1220

Sussex County: Adams State Service Center, 546 S. Bedford St., Georgetown, DE 19947 or (302) 856-5496

Complaints are investigated by field staff who visit the establishment. As with all inspections, management is supposed to correct any violations found during the investigation, according to the Division of Public Health.

HIGH-RISK RESTAURANTS

Fifteen restaurants are classified as high-risk eateries to repeated violations of Delaware food-safety regulations, according to the Delaware Division of Public Health:*

• Cafe Napoli, 4391 Kirkwood Highway, Milltown

• Cafe Valentina, 1323 McKennans Church Road, Milltown

• Chinatown Buffet, 18701 Coastal Highway, Suite 12, Rehoboth Beach

• Da Vinci's Pizzaria & Italian Restaurant, 410 E. Savannah Road, Lewes

• Golden Dove, 1101 N. DuPont Highway, New Castle

• Grand East Buffet, 2072 Naamans Road, Brandywine Hundred

• Mary's Kountry Kitchen, 222 Main St., Stanton

• Napoli Pizzaria, 31698 Indian Mission Road, Millsboro

• Nirvana Restaurant, 1601 Concord Pike, Brandywine Hundred

• Pike Creek Crossing, 5821 Limestone Road, Pike Creek

• Port, 1205 Coastal Highway, Dewey Beach

• Purebread Deli, 4807 Limestone Road, Pike Creek

• Romeo's Pizza Restaurant, 1812 Marsh Road, Brandywine Hundred

• Serpe & Sons Bakery, 1411 Kirkwood Highway, Elsmere

• Szechwan Restaurant, 3615 Kirkwood Highway, Milltown

*Kitchens at in-patient medical facilities are also considered high risk due to the vulnerable populations they serve.

DIRTY DOZEN

The following are the most cited violations at Delaware restaurants, according to state data:

• Hot and cold holding time and temperature

• Ready-to-eat food, dating potentially hazardous foods

• Clean to sight and touch, no accumulation or encrusted debris

• Separation/packaging/segregation as to prevent contamination

• Chemical sanitization, temp/ph/concentration/hardness

• System maintained in good repair

• Approved sewage disposal system

• Cooling time and temperature

• Preventing contamination from employee hands

• Controlling pests

• Responsibility of person in charge to require reporting by conditional and food employees

• Poisonous and toxic materials, prominence of identifying information