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special
investigation: safety
Students hunger
for food safety at CSULB
By Stephine Michrina
On-line Forty-Niner
The City of Long
Beach Department of Health and Human Services has failed to
perform required inspections of several restaurants at Cal
State Long Beach during the past nine months, compromising
student safety.
"We've fallen
a little behind," said Nelson Kerr, director of the department.
"I don't want to make excuses, but we've had some turnover
in that area."
Restaurant owners
and managers across the campus have been waiting and wondering
when the next inspection will occur. "We're at the mercy
of the health department," said Dahal Stiegman, the district
manager of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Company at CSULB,
which opened last August and had a seven-month gap in inspections.
Similarly, Teresa
Ruvalcaba, manager of both Subway and the Blue Marble Café,
has been anticipating the next visit. "I talked to the
lady who inspects us and she said they haven't had time,"
she said. "They're supposed to come every three months,
but there's nothing we can do about it."
The Food Inspection
Program, run by the city of Long Beach, is responsible for
ensuring food sold and served is safe, properly labeled and
produced under sanitary conditions. Under the local food inspection
program, inspectors are required to visit restaurants three
times a year.
However, many on-campus
restaurants, such as The Blue Marble Cafe in the University
Student Union, have not been inspected for months. According
to an official inspection report from the city of Long Beach,
the restaurant has not been inspected since May 5, 2000. In
the past, The Blue Marble Café has been cited for violations
such as unsuitable temperature controls and improper sanitation
of pots, pans and utensils.
Long Beach, unlike
the rest of Los Angeles County, which uses the letter grading
system for inspecting restaurants, with the highest grade
being A and the lowest being F, is one of four cities in California
not regulated by the California Health Department.
The city maintains
that after each inspection, a summary of findings is to be
posted in a location where customers can view it. Facilities
that fail inspections are cited for violations such as inadequate
storing temperatures that can lead to foodborne illnesses.
Violations are
supposed to be followed by a re-inspection of the facility
after which a new inspection report should be posted. However,
despite formal procedures, the department has failed on numerous
occasions to follow up on re-inspections around the campus.
"Sometimes
things just get a little more let go than we'd like,"
Kerr said. The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services
oversees 11 districts in the area, including the CSULB campus.
The Chart Room
at CSULB was given a notice to fix violations Dec. 15, 2000.
A re-inspection date was set for Jan. 3, 2001, however, no
records of the re-inspection were filed with the department.
The Outpost, located
near the Social Science/Public Affairs Building, was last
inspected Aug. 16, 2000, and cited for violations that included
dirty floors and inadequate temperatures in refrigerators.
The official inspection report indicated a reinspection was
to be performed Aug. 25, 2000. However, no records show a
reinspection actually occurred.
Roebeck's Juice,
last inspected Aug. 23, 2000, was cited for not keeping the
sandwich display case covered. A re-inspection date was set
for Aug. 30, 2000 but no documents in their file indicate
that a re-inspection actually occurred.
While inspection
records from the past three years at the Health Department
show no reports of food borne illnesses at CSULB, these illnesses
are often hard to detect, sometimes mistaken for flu-like
symptoms, according to Kerr. "These illnesses are grossly
underreported," Kerr said. More than 200 known diseases
are transmitted through food, with symptoms ranging from mild
gastroenteritis to life-threatening neurologic, liver, and
renal illnesses.
The Centers for
Disease Control estimates more than 300,000 Americans are
hospitalized each year and 5,000 die because of foodborne
illnesses. Illnesses that could be prevented with proper food
handling techniques under the scrupulous eye of health inspectors.
Regular inspections
cannot guarantee that restaurants will not violate health
department codes, according to Kerr. "Different inspectors
are going to be easier than others," he said. "Some
guys will totally bust you while others will let you slide."
The President's
Council on Food Safety is a national group that formed in
1998 to strengthen food safety policies and decisions. The
group estimates that $.50 of every food dollar in the United
States is spent on food outside of the home in places such
as grocery stores, restaurants, schools, hospitals and daycare
centers.
The council has
broken ground in stopping foodborne illnesses, reporting a
20 percent decrease over the past three years in illnesses
due to major bacterial food pathogens across the United States.
Restaurants on
campus owned by large corporations like Carl's Jr. and Subway
have corporate inspections every three months. These inspections,
according to Lidia Martinez, store manager at the Carl's Jr.
on campus, are thorough.
"The inspector
from the company is more strict than the health department
inspector," she said. The corporate inspections use the
same guidelines as the Health Department, which includes checking
cleanliness, temperature controls and sanitation.
Long Beach has
its own independent health inspection system unlike Los Angeles
which uses a letter-grading system.
"From what
I've seen, the only time people go to grading is in emergency
situations," Kerr said. "Our system of inspection
reports is actually tougher. If you have two or three minor
violations, that would preclude you from getting a letter
A grade." Kerr also said the letter grade system sometimes
creates a false security in customers who rely too heavily
on the letter grade without questioning the system.
However, restaurant
managers at CSULB are critical of the current system.
Stiegman believes
the inspection report posted in the window of a restaurant
makes violations look more serious than they actually are.
"I'd prefer the letter program like the one in Los Angeles,"
he said.
Stiegman is one
of several managers on campus who has complained about the
current inspection program, saying that the customer has no
way of knowing how serious the violations are. The report,
a shorter version of the full report, simply states whether
a restaurant had a violation or not, but does not specify
the nature or severity of the violation.
While the full
inspection report is available upon request at the restaurant,
most customers don't bother to ask to see it, Kerr said.
Students can take
steps to prevent foodborne illnesses, according to Gwen Adame,
a student nutritionist at the Student Health Services. "I
watch what's going on in the back as much as I can,"
Adame said.
Adame, a dietetics
and nutrition senior, advises students to look at restaurant
employee uniforms to make sure they aren't very soiled. Also,
employees washing their hands frequently and using hairnets
can indicate the level of cleanliness in a store.
"Watch people
wiping down the tables and look for them using that same towel
to wipe the floor, that causes cross contamination,"
Adame said.
Being aware of
the surroundings and practices of a restaurant is perhaps
the key to preventing foodborne illness, according to Adame.
Certain foods like shellfish, soft cheeses, eggs, poultry
and unpasturized fruit juices have a greater chance of being
contaminated, according to a physician's report called Diagnosis
and Management of Foodborne Illnesses.
The very young,
the very old, pregnant women and people who are being treated
for conditions like AIDS, cancer or diabetes are at a higher
risk of contracting food illnesses, according to the report.
With the help of
the state and federal government, prevention of foodborne
illnesses has been successful. But students should continue
to use caution when dining at the restaurants on campus.
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