Health department relies on public for restaurant complaints
The Boone County/Columbia Public Health Department inspects any local businesses that prepare food, but some of those inspections begin as complaints.
Health Department Assistant Director Scott Clardy said inspectors respond to complaints immediately.
“If we get a complaint from a member of the public about something they saw, or they were concerned about, we’ll go in and follow up on that,” Clardy said.
According to the health department’s website, complaints can be made by phone or email.
Clardy said the health department counts on the public to tell them about problems.
“We’re in there two, maybe three times a year, so we rely on the public — if they find something that concerns them, we always respond to them because we realize our inspections are just a snapshot in time,” he said.
In the past two weeks, the health department has responded to a handful of complaints, but the majority of them resulted in no violations.
