Genesee County Health Department

Better Life Through Better Health

Release Date:              November 14, 2005        

Kill Date:                     November 18, 2005  

Contact Person:           Ward Lindsay , RS

                                   Environmental Health Supervisor

                                   Genesee County Health Department  

Phone:                         (810) 257-3609            

RE:                              Food Service Inspection Reports Available On-line

On November 15, 2005 , the Genesee County Health Department will make its inspection reports of food service establishments available for the public to view on-line.  There will be a demonstration of the new web pages in Conference Rooms 1 – 2 at the health department’s 630 S. Saginaw St. location on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 8:30 a.m.   Members of the press are welcome to attend.  

Until now, a member of the public wishing to see a report had only two options:  to visit the health department in person, or to request a copy be sent to them via mail or fax – at a cost.  Now the inspection reports of every food service establishment in Genesee County will be available to everyone at no charge on the health department’s web page.  The health department’s web address is www.gchd.us.  

Visitors to the health department’s web page will be able to search for a particular establishment or groups of establishments by name, municipality, zip code, or type.  Visitors will be able to view past and present inspection reports, as well as routine (full) inspection reports and follow-up inspection report.

The web page shows visitors how to read an inspection report.  It also tells what type of establishments the health department inspects, how often inspections are conducted, what kind of violations there are, whether inspections are scored, and what happens when there are violations.  There is also information about the standards the health department uses to judge conditions at an establishment, complete with links to those standards:  the Michigan Food Law and the 1999 FDA Food Code.

By posting restaurant inspection reports on its web page, the health department anticipates a general improvement in the sanitary conditions of food service establishments in the county, as well as in the quality of the inspection reports prepared by its sanitarians.

Genesee County is the 7^th jurisdiction in Michigan to make the reports available on-line.  The other six are Ingham, Jackson , Kalamazoo , Kent , Livingston , and Muskegon Counties .

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