Walking into any restaurant in North Carolina, customers can see a white card with a health inspection score on it. This score, ranging from 0.0 to 100.0 with an accompanying letter grade, alerts customers to how safe and clean an eating establishment is in order to mitigate potential foodborne illnesses.
Orange County currently has no restaurants with health inspection ratings below an A.
“That results from our department having a very good relationship with restaurants,” said Victoria Hudson, an Orange County Health Department food, lodging and institutions supervisor.
Restaurants are inspected up to four times per year. The number of inspections a restaurant receives is determined by a risk-based frequency. Restaurants with intricate menus that require multiple stages of preparation for the final product are inspected more often than restaurants that offer only a few items.
“A place that makes only sandwiches and smoothies are easier,” Hudson said. “Restaurants are evaluated for stages that food has to be in for the final product.”
On Franklin Street, Trolly Stop Hot Dogs is inspected only twice per year, whereas BSki's is inspected four times.
“We don’t serve any seafood, we don’t serve chicken,” said Eric Martin, Trolly Stop's general manager. “It’s all beef and pre-prepared items.”
During health inspections, the Health Department evaluates a restaurant’s foodborne illness risk factors, public health interventions and retail practices. Inspectors check food storage temperatures, the accessibility of hand-washing sinks, the state of equipment and the restaurant’s use of utensils.
Restaurants can get point deductions for seemingly small offenses. BSki's manager Medo Ghon said the restaurant, which has a score of 98.5, got points deducted on its last inspection because he was drinking coffee from a cup without a lid.
