End of year Boone County food inspections find few violations

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone County health inspectors visited 20 restaurants, one caterer, one grocery store and a food processing facility in the final week of 2019.

Of the 23 inspections, 13 found no violations: Broadway Diner, The Buzz Cafe, Chipotle Mexican Grill on 9th Street in Columbia, D’Rowes, Hog Haven BBQ, Las Margaritas on St. Charles Road in Columbia, Quaker Oats, Rocheport General Store, Sky Zone, Spicewine Ironworks, the restaurant section of Lucky’s Market, Columbia's Hampton Inn & Suites and Applebee’s on I-70 Drive.

While the restaurant section of Lucky's in Columbia was found to have zero violations, the grocery store portion of the market was cited with one, non-critical violation.

The City of Columbia Food Code clearly outlines the three definitions of a "critical item:

1) "Critical item" means a provision that, if in noncompliance, is more likely than other violations to contribute to food contamination, illness, or an environmental health hazard. A critical item's application supports, facilitates or enables the elimination, prevention or reduction of hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury to an acceptable level.

2) "Critical item" includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazard such as cooking, reheating, cooling, handwashing;

3) "Critical item" includes an item that requires the incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures to attain control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling.

City of Columbia Food Code (2014)

Four restaurants were cited with one critical violation each since Dec. 24: Barred Owl, Cheddar’s, Jose Jalapenos in Ashland and Les Bourgeois Bistro.

Violations that are considered by the city to be "non-critical" are still in need of attention but are less likely to lead to food contamination, illness, or environmental health hazards.

Copper Kettle, Country Club of Missouri, Mandarin House, McDonald’s on Hwy 22 in Centralia, Sycamore and the Lucky’s Market grocery section were among the food facilities that were cited with non-critical items.

Users can search for a restaurant or kitchen in Boone County by following this link to look at recent inspection reports.