Monroe County’s health department has released the reports for inspections of food service operations that were conducted in February 2024.
More than 80 percent (14) of the 17 places that were inspected in February had no violations.
The total number of inspections for February this year (17) reflects a dramatic year-over-year drop. In February 2023, 81 establishments were inspected.
Responding to an emailed B Square question, Monroe County health administrator Lori Kelley described how more time has been required this year for processing annual food vendor license applications.
The establishments that recorded no violations were: Aver’s Pizza; Boneyard Barbeque; Buffalouies; Butler Winery #1; CVS Pharmacy #3195; CVS #6697; CVS #8671; Dollar General #6174; Domino’s Pizza (Ellettsville); Lennie’s; Marco and Polo; Papa Johns #2591 (South); Peach Cobbler Factory; and Social Cantina and Smoke Works.
Recording at least one non-critical violation, but no critical violations were two establishments—Cascades Golf Course and Square Donuts. Recording at least one critical violation was just one establishment—Mr. Hibachi.
About the reduced number of inspections in February this year, compared to February 2023, Kelley wrote: “Foods implemented a new system for license applications this year, and are implementing changes to our fees and seasonal markets, which has consumed more time for adjustments and working through system errors during the annual licensing process for establishments.”
Kelly continued: “A chunk of February was spent on licensing, approximately 171 hours and close to 50 hours so far this month.” Kelley added, “They also had higher volumes of consultations in February and some vacations/time off during the first part of this year.”
Kelly wrote that the number of routine inspections of food establishments would start to pick up in April.
Summaries of the inspections completed in March are now available on a list which is published on the health department’s website.
The B Square has compiled the December 2022, January 2023, February 2023 and March 2023 food service inspections into a single Google Sheet, and plotted out the locations for each establishment on a color-coded map.
The critical and non-critical violation numbers for each restaurant and descriptions are included in each row of the Google Sheet, as well as each location plotted on the map. (Click on a dot, and the information associated with that location will appear in the left sidebar of the map.)
The most recent month of inspections is what’s currently displayed on the map. To make the layers from previous months visible, toggle them on in the left sidebar.
Here’s the boilerplate wording for the difference between a critical and a non-critical violation from the Monroe County Health Department’s website:
Critical violations are defined as those that are likely to directly contribute to a foodborne disease. The most common and most dangerous critical violations are various degrees of temperature abuse. Potentially hazardous foods must be kept at or above 135º F or at or below 41º F. Failure to do so, or failure to cook food to the proper temperature or cool cooked food quickly (within 6 hours) to below 41ºF, is the leading cause of foodborne illness.
Non-critical violations are those that have contributing factors, but are generally not the primary cause of an outbreak.
Color Coded Map
(The color coding scheme goes like this: Green=Zero violations; Yellow=At least 1 non-critical violation but no critical violations; Red=At least 1 critical violation.) The dots on the map are grouped by month as separate layers. Different layers can be toggled on and off separately.