To make those preparations a little bit easier, we interviewed Kaycee Sebastiani who is the Food Hygiene Program Manager for Amarillo, Texas. She provides a practical and tactical view of what to prioritize to stay ready for an inspection, what to do during an inspection, and what you can do today.
She also provided her perspective on the human side of the job, what it’s like to be an inspector, and how restaurants can make the whole experience more productive, and even enjoyable, for everyone.
The human side: What inspectors wish you knew about them
Health inspectors know restaurants may not be excited to see them, but the whole process can be harder than it needs to be if staff sees health inspectors as the enemy.
“We are just people with a job to do,” she said. “We are just trying to educate restaurant staff and keep the public safe, and many of us take it very seriously and care about the mission. We know that the restaurant business is tough, but it goes easier for everyone when we work together.”
Many restaurants don’t understand that health inspection is tough work as well, and what a big operation it can be. “To service the Amarillo area I lead a team of eight inspectors, each with their own area of the district,” she explained. “Most people don’t realize we have quite a bit of restaurants in the area that we need to inspect and keep safe, and we might need to inspect three or more restaurants a day. It’s a lot!”
Sometimes, health inspectors can be more anxious about your inspection than you are. But over time, and with the right attitude, the process can be productive and even enjoyable for both parties.
“When I first started, I was a little bit nervous and afraid to see how restaurant staff would react to me being there, and if they would even listen to me,” she said. “Now that I’ve been doing the job for over five years I feel more relaxed and confident that the information I’m sharing is accurate and helpful. Most of the people I’m inspecting I’ve known for a while now, and it can be fun! I look forward to talking to people, seeing cool things, and helping people learn about food safety.”
How to stay prepared: Your 7-point checklist
After 5+ years on the job, Kaycee’s developed a clear picture of what separates restaurants that pass an inspection from those that struggle.
“The biggest thing is having a good manager who is active, watching employees, and making sure they follow all food safety requirements that are possible,” she said. “If the manager doesn’t care, the employees don’t care. Appointing a well-rounded, smart person willing to enforce food safety makes all the difference.”
Specifically, she noted 7 food safety habits to maintain at all times. They are a mix of the most common violations she has to write up, the biggest risks that can cause public health issues or closures, and the problems that surprise restaurants the most.
- Cleaning and sanitizing: If your restaurant isn’t clean, your inspector won’t care about much else. Before you open every day, make sure everyone washes their hands, and prepare your sanitizer. Wash and sanitize all food contact surfaces before you start prepping food, and wipe down surfaces routinely.
- Food and utensil handling: Many violations come from improper hand washing and managing gloves improperly. Employees need to remove single-use gloves and wash their hands regularly. Utensils should be stored in a way to prevent contamination (such as in a dedicated container with the handle sticking up)..
- Food temperatures: Checking temperatures regularly prevents a range of violations. Coolers need to be under 41 degrees, steam tables above 135, and food needs to be cooked to the right temperature. She almost never sees employees routinely checking temperatures, and that leads to many write-ups.
- Facility Issues: Minor issues (like cracks in floor or missing tiles) make it harder to keep everything clean. Major issues (like fires, sewage runoff, no water or power) are imminent health hazards that cause immediate closures. If they happen, you need to call your inspector and report it before the public does.
- Pests: There are two threads here. First, ensuring there are no pests or signs of pests (e.g. feces, dead roaches), and if there are then calling pest control right away. Second, if pests are caught during an inspection, bring in pest control and anticipate your inspector will return in a week to ensure the issue has died down.
- Foodborne illness: Managers and employees often don’t know which illnesses are transmissible through food, what symptoms they need to report, and when they shouldn’t come in to work. This lack of knowledge and enforcement is the biggest thing she finds across all inspections, and it’s a major risk factor.
- Code changes: The code changes regularly, and restaurants often don’t hear about new requirements until they violate them during an inspection. These can be small things (like a new requirement to note undercooked or raw food on the menu) but they still can lead to write ups and negatively impact a score.
Note: In Texas, they are soon moving from the 2017 code to the 2022 code, and it contains multiple changes, including everything from hand washing temperatures to allergen requirements. Review and stay ahead, starting now.
If you or your manager makes these 7 points a priority, you will be in a much better position to ace your next health inspection. Then, it’s just a matter of participating in a productive manner with the inspector who shows up at your door. Here’s how.
How to pass an inspection: The most important factor
Above all, health inspectors want one thing from you on the day of an inspection.
“The most important factor to passing an inspection is having a manager or knowledgeable employee who is willing and able to participate in the inspection,” she said. “The majority of issues can be fixed on-site during the inspection, but we need someone to follow us around, answer questions, and make those changes.”
Health inspectors don’t always get this support. Sometimes this is because restaurants get busy and feel like they don’t have anyone to spare. Other times, it’s a softer issue.
“Sometimes employees don’t know how to answer questions, or won’t, or they don’t want to be near inspectors like they are scared of us!” she said. “But it’s hard to explain what to correct if everyone is off doing something else.”
The manager or employee(s) who do participate also need to have the right attitude.
“It happens quite often that someone disagrees with a violation we find, and it’s tough because sometimes they make good points,” she said. “But the law is the law and we have to enforce it, either strictly or through a compromise we work out together.”
What to expect: A typical 5-step inspection
The inspection itself will typically follow 5 steps:
- Outside evaluations. Her team always starts on the outside, then goes in. They first drive around the building, and make sure items like grease bins and dumpsters are clean, and there aren’t major facility issues like leaking sewage.
- Announcement. Then, they will go inside, announce themselves, and explain what type of inspection they are doing. This is the time to select and offer them a manager or employee to be their point person during the inspection.
- Kitchen walk-through. Next, they will go into the kitchen, wash their own hands, and watch the staff. They see how people handle high-risk tasks (e.g. making sure they are cooking eggs correctly, making sure they are not cross-contaminating raw and cooked foods, etc.). They will also walk around the kitchen and ask about basic procedures like cooling and reheating foods.
- Storage checks. After that, they will go into storage units and equipment like coolers to make sure everything is plugged in and working, set to the right temperatures, and that risky items like raw chicken are stored properly.
- Physical facilities review. Finally, they will inspect every part of the facilities to make sure it’s all clean, there are no visible issues (like chipped tiles or peeling weather stripping), and there are no pests or signs of pests like rats or roaches.
Once everything is done, any fixable issues are addressed, and any additional violations are written up, the inspector will determine if a follow-up is needed. In most cases, one won’t be, but if there’s a major issue to address that can’t be solved on-site, a follow-up in a week or so might be needed.
Next Steps: What to do Today
There’s a lot of information to digest in this article, but there are a few concrete steps you can take today to be ready for your next inspection.
First, get a sense of when your next inspection might be
Most restaurants are inspected twice per year, every six months or so. Note when your last inspection was, look forward six months, and your next inspection will likely land around there.
Second, take care of the big items first
Bring the “How to stay prepared” section to your manager as a good checklist on the big items to button up on. Also, make sure they know someone needs to be available to participate in the next inspection.
Third, find the right partner
Most violations can be avoided with the proper training and certifications for your staff. Finding an efficient, effective partner to provide that education can make it simpler to stay on the right side of an inspection
Responsible Training has worked with Amarillo’s health inspectors for years and given them a resource to refer to the restaurants they are responsible for. “I’ve really enjoyed working with you, I like having a website or a QR code restaurant teams can scan and just go take a class,” she said. “Having a resource like Responsible Training to just give people makes it so easy to have their staff trained and certified.”
