Staff Report
BUCYRUS―Local residents can now view the health inspections of area businesses and food service facilities.
Crawford County Public Health has released a link through their website to provide the public easy access to recent food service facility inspection data. This new link is available at http://crawfordhealth.org/food-service and provides greater transparency into the inspection process of facilities licensed within their jurisdiction while also allowing community members the ability to make better-informed dining choices.
All inspections completed after June 1, 2018, are available to view.
“The mission of Crawford County Public Health is to educate, empower, and improve the quality of life for the Crawford County Community. Our staff sanitarians (health inspectors) work hard to enforce regulations and fully embrace their role to educate both business owners and consumers about food safety,” said Crawford County Health Commissioner Kate Siefert. “ Making our food inspections available online is just one of the ways we can help empower our residents.”
According to Siefert, food safety inspections are conducted unannounced with the purpose of determining if the facilities are operating in a safe and sanitary manner. The web link will allow people to search inspections by name, region (city listed as their mailing address) or by timeframe (such as completed within the last 30 days). Once a facility is selected, the site indicates the date of inspection and if there were any critical or non-critical violations. To read the complete inspection, you can click on an inspection link to see additional details.
Steve Jozwiak, Environmental Health Director, oversees all of the sanitarians and wants to clarify that a single inspection report should not be used to evaluate the overall operation of an establishment.
“One inspection is merely a snapshot of the operations within a facility. Reviewing a facility’s inspections over a period of time provides a more accurate picture of that facility’s commitment to compliance and food safety,” said Jozwiak.
To learn more about the food safety program, call (419)562-5871 to reach the Environmental Health Division. Notifications regarding when the inspection reports have been updated will be posted on the Crawford County Public Health Facebook page.