Subject: Healthy Appetite for Perfection Stirs Inspector
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April 22, 2003

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LOS ANGELES
Healthy
Appetite for Perfection Stirs Inspector
County
watchdogs monitor cleanliness in establishments where food is
sold.

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By
Daren Briscoe, Times Staff Writer

It's a measure of Raquel Doom's status that she never has to call to
say she'll be visiting even the most exclusive Los Angeles restaurants.

Her approval coveted, her scorn feared, she turns down free meals so
often you'd think she was a movie star.

If Doom sounds like a high-powered restaurant critic, that's because
she is — in a sense.

She's one of 145 county inspectors who monitor cleanliness and
compliance with health codes in the 36,000 restaurants, markets, bakeries
and warehouses in Los Angeles County where food is sold.

Instead of being buried in the pages of a restaurant guide, the
judgments of inspectors like Doom appear as letter grades posted in the
windows of restaurants across the county. The grades function as both
carrot and stick, publicly rewarding compliers and punishing scofflaws
with color-coded 5-inch-tall blue A's, green B's and red C's.

Although county inspectors have long had the power to cite restaurants
for code violations, the letter-grading system dates only to 1997,
when it was adopted after an undercover KCBS-TV Channel 2
investigation showed unsanitary conditions and employees mishandling
food in some restaurants.

Since then, grading restaurants has become one of the most recognizable
and popular functions of a county government that operates largely
out of the public eye, according to Terrence Powell, chief
environmental specialist for the Department of Public Health. In a
2001 survey of 2,000 L.A. county residents, the grading program had
an approval rating of 91%, and 89% of respondents thought that an A
grade would help a food establishment's business, Powell said.

The grading program is less popular with people like David Houston,
owner of Q's Billiards in Brentwood that got an A in a recent
inspection. Houston complained that public confusion about what the
grades actually signify puts undue pressure on restaurant owners.

"It's not like school, where a B or a B+ is good," Houston said.
"Anything less than an A is seen as disastrous."

The tools of the trade are hardly intimidating, judging by the food
thermometer, pocket flashlight and notebook full of state and county
health regulations Doom packed as she started her rounds on a recent day
with a stop at Noah's Bagels in Brentwood.

But within two minutes of introducing herself, she chided an employee
about the pair of soiled work gloves he was wearing while stacking
baking trays, then slid open the doors of a display case and began
probing bagel dogs, tuna salad and chicken salad with efficient jabs
of her food thermometer.

The employees were visibly nervous, but after about 20 minutes Doom
noted just a few minor violations, and the shop retained its A.

"I'm fair, and I always give people a chance to explain," Doom said
afterward. "The reason I'm here is to help protect the public, not to
post a grade in a window."

Every establishment inspected starts out with a score of 100, with
points deducted for each violation. Conditions that pose high risks for
food-borne illnesses are considered serious, so undercooked food is a
six-point deduction while an employee without a hairnet costs only
one point. A final score of 90 or more merits an A, 80 to 89 a B,
and 70 to 79 a C. Although the county considers any grade above 69
acceptable, such distinctions are lost on people like Ireal Gant,
49, who stood waiting for his order recently outside a Fatburger
restaurant on Western Avenue.

"I won't even sit down in a place that doesn't have an A," Gant said.
"I definitely pay attention to the grades and if I see a B, I'm like,
'What's up?' "

John Dunlap, president of the California Restaurant Assn., said the
grades reflect "a snapshot in time" that may not accurately reflect
conditions in a restaurant. Dunlap said his group would prefer a coaching
approach, where inspectors explain violations and allow time for
them to be corrected.

Owners who are unhappy with their grades can pay $193 for a
reinspection, but the procedure remains the same.

"We come in unannounced," Powell said. "Our belief is that the way we
find a facility is the way they operate."

He said that reports of food-borne illnesses have gone down since
letter-grades were instituted, from a high of 2,050 cases in 1998 to 1,466
cases in 2001, the last year for which information was available.

Occasionally, Doom finds a violation serious enough to require closing
a restaurant, including lack of hot water or rodent infestation. But
for the most part, she says, her job is routine, reminding employees
to wash their hands, making sure food is stored properly, enduring
nervous jokes about her name when she introduces herself to
restaurant owners.

"I hear them all the time," she said. "And I just tell them, 'Be glad
I'm not your doctor.' "

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