Pittsburgh Restaurants Cited for Food Safety Violations

September 2008

Raw chicken juice mixing with cooked shrimp. Ready-to-serve sushi decomposing in a defective cooler. These are just some of the food safety violations discovered by restaurant inspectors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer watchdog group, has revealed findings of a new report based on a sampling of restaurant inspections in 20 cities, including Pittsburgh. The group found dangerous food handling practices at two-thirds of the 539 restaurants it examined. The following key findings were reported:

• Of the 30 Pittsburgh, PA restaurants that were reviewed, 21, or 70 percent, had at least one "critical" violation. A critical violation is one that is considered the most dangerous to public health by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• The most common dangerous violations in Pittsburgh were poor hand washing and holding or storing food at unsafe temperatures. These violations can lead to the spread of foodborne illnesses caused by Hepatitis A, staph, Salmonella, and botulism.
• Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Boston had the most violations for hygiene problems among their food service workers.
• Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. were criticized for making it too difficult for customers to view inspection reports.

Despite the fact that 40 percent of foodborne illnesses are acquired at restaurants, compared to 22 percent at home, Allegheny County does not post restaurant inspection results in business windows or online. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is pushing food safety inspectors to post letter grades – "A," "B," or "C" – in restaurant windows so that customers can see how restaurants did on their latest inspections. A spokesman for the Allegheny County Health Department, which inspects restaurants across the county, said that this would not be a fair representation of eating establishments.

If people want to see restaurant inspection reports for Allegheny County, they must go to the health department's Oakland office or make a written request for copies by mail at 50 cents per page.