Welcome to

The way health inspectors look over restaurants in the state is changing.  As Matt Galka tells us, the agency in charge of inspections says it’s all about efficiency.

The 48,000 licensed restaurants in the state will be inspected a little differently starting next week. The risk based inspection system will take into account menus and past violations. The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association says it didn’t make sense to inspect a street vendor and a 5 star eatery the same amount of times.

“There’s very little that can go wrong with a hot dog cart, not a lot of people served that day, very limited menu, very limited preparation. Contrast that with what you’d consider for food service in a medical setting,” says FRLA V.P. Geoff Luebkemann

The state says the changes will save time and money.

“The new risk based system actually makes good business sense for our licensees but also for Florida taxpayers. It allows the department to hone their efforts on those, those establishments that may need a little more assistance,” says Beth Frady with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Restaurants with a confirmed food born illness in the last year will be inspected at least 4 times.  Most others will be at least two or one.

Backwoods Bistro owner Jesse Rice says random check ins come with the territory.

“Sure it makes sense, there’s a lot more that comes out of this restaurant than a hot dog stand and should be inspected more often I’d say,” he said.

The state says that only 20 restaurants out of 48,000 had food born illness problems this past year. Along with the new guidelines, the department of business and professional regulation said a restaurant will be inspected every time a consumer complaint is received.