Diner detectives: Health inspections unveil eateries' good, bad, ugly

Deseret Morning News graphic    Salt Lake County eatery inspections (1.4 MB .pdf file)

Deseret Morning News graphic    Utah County eatery inspections (600 KB .pdf file)

Inspectors say most local eateries work hard to follow health department rules, but some struggle. Among those that struggle the most is Cafe Kim in West Jordan.

Health inspectors closed it twice for serious violations during the past two years, for a total of 11 days — the longest stretch for any local restaurant. During inspections, it also amassed four times more violation points on average than a typical full-service restaurant, the worst in Salt Lake County.

Inspectors found 160 code violations there, including 25 considered "critical" — or most likely to cause food-borne illness if not fixed quickly. The violations ranged from dirty food-preparation surfaces to touching ready-to-serve food with bare hands, storing toxic materials near food and not keeping hot foods hot enough nor cold foods cold enough.

Cafe Kim did not respond to a hand-delivered letter seeking comment.

How do other local eateries rate?

Area residents usually don't know, because health departments will release such data only if someone files a formal request through state open-records laws. The requester must then pay up to $50 per hour (in Utah County) for workers to process that request, plus copying fees.

The Deseret Morning News went through that process to obtain inspection data on 5,000 eateries in Salt Lake and Utah counties, and today posts average scores for each of them online by clicking on the PDF links above.

(Davis County has not computerized its inspection records, so it was not included. However, that county is planning to put inspection results online itself later this year and has hired a contractor to scan its paper reports to make such data available.)

The Morning News used such data to identify eateries with the best scores and the worst; to show how fast-food chains compare; to show how various types of ethnic food restaurants compare; and to show how different types of eateries — from schools to nursing homes, full-service cafes and buffets — score on average.

Inspector crunch

It also found that officials in both Salt Lake and Utah counties do not inspect eateries as often as mandated by state law. Both blame tight budgets that they say do not allow hiring enough inspectors. That means some eateries rarely saw an inspector over the two years.

Warnings and caveats

Health departments worry inspection results could be misinterpreted. So, some explanation is needed to help residents know what they can fairly compare and conclude — and what they should not.