Health Law

Colorado's El Paso County Admits It Cannot Keep Up with Inspections

By Marler Clark

The top health official for Colorado's El Paso County, home of the U.S. Air Force Academy,  U.S. Northern Command,  and the Northern American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), just acknowledged local restaurants could be unsafe.

"We've got a large increase in the number of complaints that are coming to us, we really ought to be out there finding these things before they end up to be a complaint," says El Paso County Public Health Administrator Rosemary Bakes-Martin.  "We think what's lagging the most right now is restaurants, a restaurant inspection is pretty time consuming."

Colorado law requires local health departments inspect restaurants twice a year.  El Paso County budget constraints keep them from inspecting even once every two years.

At a budget hearing, the health department said the number of restaurant-related complaints and violations increased six-fold.   Maybe someone should call Homeland Security.

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on April 08, 2008 (boomark / email).