Rochester, Minn. (KTTC) — The City of Minneapolis rolled out it’s website about restaurant health inspections yesterday becoming the first city in the state to have this information available to the public in an online forum. The traffic was so high that the site crashed. So where does Olmsted County stand on the matter?
The county’s Environmental Health Manager, Mike Melius, says that although the information isn’t available online, you can call, email or visit the Public Health Services offices to request a copy of a restaurant’s official inspection. Wait times can vary, from as little as one day to a week, depending on staffing and what time of the year it might be.
Melius also says that Olmsted County grades differently than Minneapolis stating, “We don’t issue a numerical score, actually our reports focus on the food safety systems like hand-washing, cooling, cooking temperatures. So we rate those risk factor food systems so the operator can understand where they need to focus to improve their operations.”
The offices also agreed with what local restaurant owner Joe Powers tells KTTC, which is that the county, when conducting these inspections, walk around with the manager, letting them learn and be educated on how to better their restaurant.
So will Olmsted County follow suit with its own website? Melius says it could happen, but they would need to figure out how to best format the information that is presented about each restaurant on the hypothetical website which could take a while considering that Minneapolis started this website project back in 2016.
For now, to obtain the records you can call (507) 328-7500 or visit the offices located at 2100 Campus Drive SE in Suite 100. Click here for their website.
