The Roach Report Finds a New Home on KVUE

It used to be KXAN-TV that carried the torch for all the hue and cry regarding reports of restaurants that were regarded as “unsafe” by the Austin-Travis county health inspectors. Now KVUE, Channel 24, home of the seriously cute Christine Haas, has stepped into the breach with a feature entitled Eat, Drink and be Wary! While I applaud the fact that the station believes it is performing a public service, I often question how the scores that these restaurants receive are calculated.

A failing score is anything less than a 70. And while it’s one thing to observe roaches and rodents running around, mold on the ice machine, or proper temperatures not being maintained (and I certainly want to know these things), a number of the scores, according to restaurants I’ve spoken with, are highly subjective. Many claim the scores can literally depend on the mood of the inspector on the day they visit the restaurant.

And isn’t it interesting how the restaurant that flunked almost always seems to get a higher score on the “follow-up” visit?

I happened to be in an Asian restaurant one day and heard that a food inspector was there. I had been in the same kitchen he visited only moments before and had observed numerous fruit flies. So when that week’s “failing grades” came out, I was sure I’d see that restaurant on the list. But they were not there. They’d passed.

Conversely, I was at El Gallo on S. Congress the other night. I was particularly impressed with how clean everything appeared to be. And yet the report came out later that week and they flunked, with a score of 64.

Another problem that’s been alleged by restaurateurs is that many inspectors have no real restaurant background. And some, restaurants claim, flat-out don’t know what to look for or overreact to other minor problems.

It would be my contention that the health department post two scores from two unannounced visits by different inspectors and average them out before stating, and then plastering across the TV screen, that someone has “failed”. I have no problem with reporting the findings on TV. I just think we need to revisit the process and clean it up (no pun intended) so that the public can be best served.