Health Inspections

A beautiful, clear white plaque on the counter of the Penguin Place yogurt shop in Los Alamitos shows customers that the eatery holds a "First Place" city rating. Tell that to the cockroaches. The place was closed for a day last month by county health officials. Employees said an inspector found two dead cockroaches in a back room. But the county's Environmental Health Division report called it a "heavy cockroach infestation throughout the food storage and service areas."

Beginning next month, restaurant owners and food vendors here will be required to display health and sanitation grades awarded by Los Angeles County health inspectors. The new rule was unanimously approved at this week's City Council meeting, said city spokesman Don Waldie. The ordinance brings Lakewood into line with more than half of the county's cities, said a county health department spokeswoman.

After a Los Angeles County restaurant inspector allegedly accepted a cash payment in exchange for an A grade recently, county supervisors approved a new fraud hotline for restaurant owners Tuesday. Proposed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the restaurant inspection hotline will be connected to the Inspection and Audit Division of the Department of Health Services. The office of the auditor-controller will be in charge of the hotline, said Cam Currier, a spokesman for Antonovich.

The county Board of Supervisors created a hotline Tuesday for restaurant owners to report improprieties by health inspectors. The decision was made a day after a county health inspector was arrested over an allegation that he took a bribe from a restaurant owner in exchange for an "A" grade during an inspection.

It has become the stamp of approval that diners care more about than any food review: the letter grade from health inspectors that restaurants are required to display in their windows. But you won't see them in Orange County any time soon, despite the popularity of the grades elsewhere in Southern California.

Los Angeles County health inspectors began to collect samples of soil, water, dust and paint at a Bell Gardens elementary school Wednesday to determine if lead levels pose a danger to children there. The county's childhood lead poisoning prevention program sent four inspectors to Suva Elementary School after state toxicologists discovered unusually high levels of lead in a school vacuum cleaner.

Beginning Monday, owners of food establishments that receive ratings below C will be required to explain at a hearing why they should not be closed, a Los Angeles County Department of Health Services official said. The county Board of Supervisors ruled in favor of the new requirement to further ensure the safety of food served at Los Angeles County's 36,000 restaurants and other eateries, said John Schunhoff, chief of operations for public health.

The Los Angeles County health department's new letter-grade system for restaurants has made food safer, a county official said Thursday, but the only evidence he could offer was the fact that restaurants are getting higher grades. Whether this means restaurant food is safer than it was before the letter-grade system was instituted this year can only be assumed, acknowledged Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health.

The City Council has introduced an ordinance that would require businesses to post the letter grades given to them by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. If the measure is adopted, restaurants, bars, markets, bakeries and liquor stores would have to display the signs in public view. The county requires restaurants to post a A, B or C grades so patrons can see how the establishments are complying with health codes.

Restaurants will soon have to post their ratings from county inspectors to show how well they are complying with health codes. The City Council has voted to ratify a county ordinance that requires restaurants to post the letter grade they receive from inspectors. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently passed a county ordinance requiring the posting of the A, B or C grade but, to enforce it, incorporated cities are required to pass their own law.