Reality programs such as Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant: Impossible
derive a lot of their entertainment from just how
dysfunctional the restaurants can be when a celebrity chef first arrives.
"This is what I wanna do right now."
It does, however, raise the question about how these establishments manage
to stay open long enough for their rehabilitation to even take place.
Surely, there must be health inspectors involved, right? That's what two fans asked Robert Irvine
after watching one episode of Restaurant: Impossible. In a Twitter post, Irvine insisted:
"I saw a sticker that gave them an
A rating from the same year. [...] It doesn't get that dirty overnight."
Irvine elaborated on his explanation while addressing a second question on
Twitter about how the restaurant was allowed to operate for so long. He reiterated that the
sticker in question had been given earlier that year, but added that local governments
often don't have enough health inspectors on staff to conduct frequent follow-up checks,
especially when the restaurant has already passed the initial inspection. Irvine wrote:
"Some don't get them inspected for a couple years. [...] Ridiculous, if you ask me."
This isn't a new problem in the restaurant industry, either.
Six years ago, a similar conversation began on Reddit, where one user gave an explanation as
to why there are so many unhygienic restaurants still open. They wrote:
"Too many restaurants and not enough health inspectors [...] [Plus if] they do come and
you have violations, they tell you what they are
and you have 24 [hours] to fix them. If you fix them then you're clear for another year."
In fact, this particular labor shortage posed serious problems in March 2019,
a year before the pandemic set in. CBS Pittsburgh reported that month that the number of health
inspectors had dropped by 20%, leaving some places unchecked since 2016. One restaurateur speculated:
"I think they've always been understaffed,
and the reason they're understaffed is that the job doesn't pay enough."
Another issue is that health inspectors run the risk of finding themselves in
potentially dangerous situations on the job. After all, their role is to
threaten other people's livelihoods if a certain standard of hygiene is not met.
Health inspections can quickly become shouting matches or worse,
with one report by the Phoenix New Times detailing a case in which a restaurant owner brandished a
meat tenderizer at a visiting health inspector. While that's obviously an extreme example, it
nevertheless highlights the stressful environments in which some health inspectors have to work.
Budgetary issues don't help, either. Take, for example, the dire straits of the situation in
Massachusetts. In December 2021, WGBH reported that an allocation of $200 million to local
health services could radically transform said services. Obviously, $200 million is a lot of
money — but it's the extent of what people did to get by that speaks to why some restaurants
just aren't checked. One health agent explained to WGBH that before the new funds allocation,
she was having to handle a number of responsibilities, including restaurant, pool,
and housing inspections. That's all for Rockland, Massachusetts, a town of just 20,000 people.
Worse still, with such issues plaguing the industry, it's only to be expected
that fraud and corruption can crop up in the world of food inspection. In December 2021,
the New York Daily News reported that three restaurant owners in Brooklyn were arrested for
bribing a health inspector. Specifically, they wanted a week's notice so they could conduct a
quick annual cleanse, before letting everything fall apart again once the inspection was complete.
This obviously defeats the purpose of the inspections,
which are meant to ensure establishments follow health codes year round.
A bribery scam may also be afoot in Missouri, as The Mexico Ledger
reported on January 12th that a fraudulent health inspector had been making the rounds.
In an email obtained by the outlet, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said:
"This can look like someone calling to schedule an inspection or arriving on site
and stating they are a 'health inspector.'"
In short, it's obvious that health inspectors are more
needed than ever — and that the current system, sadly, is in a bit of a mess.
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