There's Bad News For Foodies

How often do we stop to think about what is going on in the kitchens of our favorite restaurants? Just how clean is it back there? Is the food being handled properly? Are the plates, flatware, and glasses really clean? Was the chicken cooked enough? Was the fish properly refrigerated?

Violations of one form or another, from minor "maintenance" deficiencies to others with the potential to cause illness, occur at virtually every restaurant on the South Fork, from the poshest of the Hamptons dining spots to the inexpensive Chinese take-outs.

The Star recently obtained copies of the latest inspection reports for 150 South Fork restaurants (not including delis or pizza places) and found some surprising revelations. Not that there is reason to cause alarm - it is generally safe to eat out, and many food-borne illnesses can come from one's own kitchen at home just as easily as from that of a restaurant. Still, the reports do give one, well, food for thought.

Annual Inspections

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services inspects restaurants and other food preparation establishments at least once a year, including the many fund-raising tasting events the East End sees each year. Sometimes more than one inspection is done each year if the department receives complaints or is checking on repeated violations that have not been fixed.

South Fork restaurants are inspected primarily by one person, Terry O'Riordan. With each inspection of a food establishment, a report is completed, distinguishing between "red critical" and "blue maintenance" violations.

These reports by law must be available on site at each restaurant and it is every diner's right to be able to see the current report and the restaurant's Health Department certificate. But, of course, very few diners do so.

No Major Violations

From the reports The Star pored over, for restaurants from Montauk to Southampton, 60 had no red critical violations, the kind that can cause food-borne illnesses.

However, a number of the eateries did not have food preparation going on when the inspection took place, and it is these violations that can cause illness and thus are the most important for the inspector to find. Only 18 places had no violations of any kind in the reports reviewed.

Tongs On The Trash

The mere existence and number of violations should not deter patrons. Many are simple maintenance violations, such as not having a Heimlich maneuver poster visible to diners, not adhering to the county's smoking regulations, or having a broken faucet or no soap and paper towels at the kitchen sink.

Inspectors often find that food items, perhaps boxes or cans, are stored underneath sewer lines. That's a violation. So is having cans or bottles of beer and soda submerged in water or in drink ice at the bar. And so, too, is storing clean pans and trays upright and uncovered directly on the kitchen floor.

Other maintenance violations include finding mouse droppings, or dead roaches in the case of another restaurant, on shelving where food, spices, and condiments are stored. At several spots corkboards with pushpins were found above a display of cake or over the hatch to an ice maker bin.

During one inspection chef's tongs were spotted stored on the lip of a trash barrel. Bare lamps overhead in the kitchen and decrepit floors in walk-in refrigerators were also found.

Truth In Menus

And, not surprisingly, several inspection reports reminded restaurant workers that menu claims must be truthful. One Chinese take-out claimed no M.S.G. was used, but in fact it was being used. Another restaurant's menu touted a flounder dish, but another fish was being used in its place.

At a third spot, the Health Department followed up a complaint that shrimp was being used in the lobster salad of a lobster roll. The complainant was allergic to shrimp. Lobster salad must use only lobster, the inspector reminded the chef.

It is the "red violations," however, that have the ability to turn one's stomach and have second thoughts when ordering a meal out. Improper storage, handling, cooking, cooling, and heating of food create the potential for illnesses.

Storing Meats, Fish

One of the most commonly cited red violations found among the reports was the storage of raw meats and fish among or over ready-to-eat foods, like salad greens, salad dressings, tubs of sour cream, et cetera. This raises the possibility of contamination of other foods that will not be cooked, which usually kills bacteria.

In one restaurant, raw salmon and meats were found among leafy garnishes. Raw foods should be stored at the bottom of refrigerators and not mixed with foods otherwise ready to be served.

Similarly, ready-to-eat foods like salads and cold sandwiches, even lemon garnishes for drinks, are not supposed to be handled with bare hands by a food worker. Rather, gloves should be donned and/or tongs used.

During one inspection a bartender was seen barehandedly dredging an unclean five-gallon pail through the drink ice in a cellar ice maker, thus contaminating all of the cubes. All of the ice had to be dumped.

Cooking Eggs

Chefs are also not at liberty to sample foods with their fingers while working in the kitchen; utensils should be used. One cook was spotted working with a bandaged finger without a finger cot or glove over it, another no-no.

Foods must be stored below or above certain temperatures, too, and incorrect temperatures were fairly common among the red violations The Star saw. At one eatery on an August afternoon, incorrect storage temperatures caused sliced fresh ham, three pounds of cooked meatloaf, 15 pounds of whole smoked ham, three pounds of pork loin, five pounds of pate, five pounds of truffle pate, seven pounds of maple glazed honey ham, and seven pounds of breast of turkey to be thrown out.

Eggs, the chief culprit in causing salmonella, are a tricky thing for chefs to deal with. Fresh eggs must be cooked at 145 degrees for 15 seconds; otherwise liquid pasteurized eggs and egg products must be used.

Runny At Your Own Risk

A patron can request that his or her eggs be undercooked, however. "The customer can take that risk onto themselves," said Bruce Williamson, the supervisor of the Food Control Program for Suffolk County.

Chefs are required, by state law, to use liquid pasteurized eggs in recipes that involve "pooling" multiple eggs, like a mix for French toast or scrambled eggs, Caesar salad dressing, or Hollandaise sauce. He has seen illness outbreaks from batches of French toast made with fresh eggs more than once, Mr. Williamson said.

Like eggs, hamburger meat must be cooked to a certain temperature, although the diners have the liberty of requesting their meat be undercooked, even rare. Be forewarned, however, that with any rare meat, like sushi, steak tartar, and seared tuna, "there's a potential for parasites," according to Mr. Williamson.

Most Go Unreported

Illnesses from such parasites, Mr. Williamson added, are "not real common. When it happens to you though, it becomes real important."

The Health Department received 229 complaints of food-borne illnesses in 1995 for all of Suffolk, though Mr. Williamson was quick to point out that not all of these were legitimate. In many cases, there were other causes for the illness.

On the other hand, Mr. Williamson said, most people do not report food-borne illnesses. Some experts say only about 1 percent get reported. People often do not realize their illness is caused by what they consumed; they are more likely to realize it when groups of people discover that they all got sick after eating together.

Certified Manager

Since 1975, Suffolk County has required that each restaurant always have at least one certified food manager on duty during food preparation and service. Classes leading to these certificates, which must be renewed every three years, are offered throughout the county, including on the East End, and more than 30,000 people have been certified in the county since the program started.

The program may have something to do with the fact that there has been a general decrease in food-borne illnesses in Suffolk County. And that's good news for diners.

One local chef, Kevin Penner of Della Femina in East Hampton, credited the Health Department and its inspectors with being "really concerned about public health." He added, "That's on our minds, too."

"Common Sense"

"To a large degree it's common sense," Mr. Penner added, saying a basic understanding of food chemistry, concern, and no laziness is all one needs to be up to snuff with county health regulations.

One might wonder whether Mr. Williamson, the county inspector, so knowledgeable and familiar with health violations and their consequences, frequents restaurants himself.

"Not often, but I do go out to eat on occasion," he said.