The state Office of Public Health promises to toughen up its restaurant inspections, but new measures will be implemented
only by the spoonful in 2013.
Assistant Secretary J.T. Lane said last week the department has worked for a year developing and testing new measures that
will be standardized and enforced beginning Jan. 1. The department’s plan is fourfold, according to the OPH website:
• Implement new management tools.
• Centralize and standardize the inspection process.
• Add new standards to be measured on employee evaluations.
• Make it easier to enforce compliance by the restaurants.
“We are deeply committed to the safety and health of some of state’s most valued treasures, our people and our restaurants
and food establishments,” Lane said in a prepared statement. “Restaurants provide great food and jobs in our communities,
and the best way for us to support both consumers and establishments is to ensure they are offering a safe bite to eat.”
Lane is on target: Among many cultural
treasures in Louisiana is our state’s food. That’s the new “talk.”
Here’s the old “walk,”
according to a story on NOLA.com, reported last week: Between 2009
and 2011, OPH failed to make the four inspections mandated
annually at four-fifths of selected restaurants.
That’s an alarming scorecard,
especially when one considers that Lane said no additional inspectors
are needed, which means
manpower was sufficient all along. It’s alarming, too, when one
considers that much of our state’s tourism business centers
around our food.
Here’s how lax the state has been in
overseeing health conditions in restaurants: NOLA.com reported that in
New Orleans, Commander’s
Palace, Emeril’s, Gautreau’s and Domenica, all premier
restaurants, were not inspected in 2012.
OPH’s fledgling efforts to improve
state inspections should be noted, but not yet applauded. Before we
applaud, we should
first know that restaurants have been adequately inspected in
2013. Much of the first quarter will involve training and rolling
out the new regs; that doesn’t leave a full year to make all the
mandated inspections.
Second, the state would do well to
enable consumers to be fully aware of inspection results. Other states —
Mississippi and
Georgia spring to mind, in the Deep South — empower consumers by
fully informing them of how restaurants measure up when it
comes to meeting important health standards. Go online to sample
how other states report back to the consumers, then sample
Louisiana’s Office of Public Health site to compare.
Louisianians should be encouraged that
our health officials have made a new start in drawing up and enforcing
standards in
the restaurants. More important still is ensuring that this new
start is an effective start, one that ultimately will serve
consumers and restaurants both. We’re waiting.
• • •
This editorial was written by a member of the American Press Editorial Board. Its content reflects the collaborative opinion of the Board, whose members include Bobby Dower, Ken Stickney,
Jim Beam, Crystal Stevenson and Donna Price.