Sometimes education fails. Pesticide soaking into bags of sugar and onions on a kitchen floor. Strands of human hair lying atop food on a grill. Sewage backing up into a dishwashing machine. There's no deterrence factor here, which means there's no prevention.
Winter quit last year, partly because of the department's reluctance to penalize risky restaurants.
Gaps too long Constant turnover in management and staff in the retail food industry can lead to abrupt changes in a restaurant's safety practices, experts say. That's why frequent inspections are essential to deter the spread of many serious, even fatal, food-borne diseases. St. Louis, Denver and Indianapolis, among other cities, inspect some restaurants as often as three times a year. It's likely that even fewer inspections were done in 2000, the inspectors' supervisor said. On its last inspection, the Peppercorn Duck Club at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel earned a perfect score.