Karns Quality Blog

Last summer the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture made their database of restaurant inspections available for the public to view online at www.agriculture.state.pa.us/pafoodsafety.  While this was an excellent step for the open sharing of public records with concerned citizens, residents of Harrisburg could not benefit from the database because the City of Harrisburg conducts its own inspections.

Last week, Mayor Reed announced that Harrisburg’s inspections will now be available in the database as well.  At the moment, the listings for Harrisburg are minimal.  Only 2008 inspections are included in the database, and new results will be added as they are available.

So what can we learn from the information in the database thus far?  Two City establishments in the database were found to be out of compliance: Lebanon Valley Meats in the Broad Street Market and Stock’s on Second.  Of particular note is that Stock’s was found to be out of compliance for failing to store their perishable food at a cold enough temperature and that the inspection was initiated because of a complaint against the restaurant.

It is important to remember that these inspections provide a snapshot of the conditions at the establishment on a particular day and that the establishments are required to correct the violations, often on the spot.  I’m not implying that you should or should not eat at any particular establishment.  Use your own judgement on that.  Going forward, however, I do plan to publish the results of any Harrisburg City restaurants found to be out of compliance.