Cities Ranked by Dirty Restaurants
Is your city a haven for restaurant health hazards?
A consumer group has ranked 20 U.S. cities for restaurant health. Austin, Texas, and Boston rank worst, while Tucson, Ariz., and San Francisco rank best.
But it’s not at all clear whether diners are dirtiest in Austin and Boston, or whether these towns simply have the toughest inspectors — or if inspectors in Tucson and San Francisco are more lenient.
The report, “Dirty Dining,” comes from the consumer group the Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI food-safety attorney Sarah Klein, JD, is co-author.
The CSPI ranking considers how often city inspectors found five major health hazards and five less critical concerns in 30 high-end, medium-range, and fast-food eateries in each city.
The major health hazards:
- Food held at an unsafe temperature. According to a 2004 FDA report, 65% of restaurants don’t fully comply with federal Food Code guidelines on food temperature. Perishable foods should be cooled to 41 degrees Fahrenheit. And bacteria multiply in warming pans if the temperature is not high enough and if foods are left there long enough.
- Hand washing. According to a 2007 CDC report, 20% of food-borne illnesses caused by bacteria come from infected workers.
- Improper cooking. The 2004 FDA report estimated that about 16% of full-service restaurants don’t fully cook their food. Two of the most harmful food-poisoning bacteria - salmonella and E. coli — lurk in undercooked meats.
- Contaminated food-contact surfaces. The FDA report found 56% of full-service restaurants were not were not compliant.
- Food from unsafe sources. The FDA report suggested that 13% of full-service restaurants don’t comply with food-source guidelines.
Less serious concerns include:
- Substandard employee cleanliness and hygiene
- Rodents and insects
- Improper use of wiping cloths
- Presence of sick restaurant workers
- Bare-hand contact with raw food
Dirty Dining Cities Ranked
Here’s the CSPI’s ranking of restaurants in 20 U.S. cities. It’s not an entirely fair contest. Some cities were more reluctant to report than others were and did not provide routine reports on all 30 restaurants requested. Baltimore, for example, did well in the rankings but withheld the requested information on 16 of 30 restaurants.
The ranking here lists cities according to a weighted value assigning demerits for major and minor violations as reported by city health inspectors. The “best” cities may, in reality, simply have the most lenient inspectors; the “worst” cities may have the strictest inspectors.
The CSPI’s city rankings, from “worst” to “best”:
- Austin, Texas: 58 violations in 30 restaurants
- Boston: 63 violations in 30 restaurants
- Milwaukee, 27 violations in 20 restaurants
- Colorado Springs, Colo.: 46 violations in 30 restaurants
- Kansas City, Mo.: 41 violations in 30 restaurants
- Pittsburgh: 40 violations in 30 restaurants
- Denver: 35 violations in 30 restaurants
- Las Vegas: 30 violations in 25 restaurants
- Washington, D.C.: 27 violations in 25 restaurants
- New York: 32 violations in 30 restaurants
- Atlanta: 19 violations in 20 restaurants
- Portland: 25 violations in 27 restaurants
- Baltimore: 14 violations in 14 restaurants
- Minneapolis, Minn.: 31 violations in 29 restaurants
- Chicago: 22 violations in 30 restaurants
- St. Louis: 17 violations in 27 restaurants
- Seattle: 16 violations in 30 restaurants
- Philadelphia: 16 violations in 23 restaurants
- San Francisco: 15 violations in 30 restaurants
- Tucson, Ariz.: 14 violations in 29 restaurants
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