NY Health Dept. shuts down 27 percent more restaurants in ’09 as agency beefs up inspections
It’s a New York ritual: You fall in love with an eatery, only to find it shut down by the Health Department.
Well, last year, it happened a lot more.
The Health Department shut down 1,758 restaurants last year, 27% more than in 2008.
But health bosses swear city restaurants aren’t getting dirtier – they just did more inspections.
“We got to more restaurants last year,” said Assistant Health Commissioner Daniel Kass. “When you get to more, you are going to find more.”
The previous year also produced an unusually low number of closures because inspectors were bogged down with new rules that had them searching for trans fats in food and calorie counts on menu boards. Those violations won’t close a restaurant, but they will slow down the inspection process.
On the other hand, any public health hazard that can’t be fixed at the time of the inspection, such as a broken refrigerator, gets a spot closed immediately.
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