NBC health inspection expose sparks fast-food furor

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 1, 2003 by Amy Garber

The nation's largest quick-service chains, still under heat for America's rising rates of obesity, are on the defensive once again following a nationally televised expose of dirty restaurants.

According to an NBC News "Dateline" investigation, more than 600 out of 1,000 surveyed branches of leading fast-food restaurants, or about 61 percent, had been cited in the last year and a half for at least one "critical" food safety violation, defined by inspectors as potentially illness inducing. The Nov. 16 report caused at least one Wall Street analyst to warm that the negative publicity could hurt business for the embattled quick-service segment.

Following the broadcast foodservice experts were eager to tell their side of the story.

"The restaurant industry is doing a great job in continuing to lower the rate of food-borne illness in our country," said Steven Grover, who is vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the National Restaurant Association and appeared in the "Dateline" report.

Grover, a former restaurant inspector, said the foodservice industry as a whole is "safer now than at any other time in history." He pointed out that "the rate of food-borne illness has gone down every year. I unequivocally said that during the interview, and I find it strange that it didn't make it into the show."

"Dateline" ranked each of the 10 largest fast-food chains on the basis of the number of critical violations reported for 100 restaurants from each brand. From those data the show said it had created "a top 10 list, where no fast-food restaurant wants to come in No. 1. "The network said it hired a survey company to inspect public-health records in 38 states. The inspection reports were used "to find out which fast-food chains in our survey are the cleanest and the dirtiest," network officials said Comments from Caroline Smith Dewaal of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, were also included in the piece.

Burger King topped what "Dateline" dubbed its "Dirty Dining" list with 241 violations for such things as employees not washing their hands, uncovered refrigerated food and debris found on ice chutes. Bob Nilsen, Burger King's president, responded in a letter that BK would "quickly investigate these specific findings and we will take immediate actions to address each one of them."

Arby's was No. 2, with 210 critical violations, followed by Wendy's with 206, but with more restaurants implicated than No. 4 Hardee's, also with 206. Dairy Queen had 184; Jack in the Box had 164; Subway had 160, KFC had 157; McDonald's had 136; and Taco Bell had 91. In all, the survey found 1,755 critical violations and 613 outlets cited at least once.

"It was a story that was sensationalized to some degree in that it gave no context on health reports and why they are out there and what they are used for," explained Terrie Dort, president of the National Council of Chain Restaurants, or NCCR. She added: "I really would like to know how they picked the [100] restaurants from any given chain. Was it truly representative, or did they go on a hunt for the worst ones? We suspect that is what they did."

"Dateline" singled out a Jack in the Box unit in Ventura, Calif., calling it "a trouble spot" and reporting that it had "several" customer complaints of food-borne illness.

"Those allegations concerned us, so we contacted the local health department and obtained the same inspection reports that the health department had provided to 'Dateline' for that location." a Jack in the Box spokesman said. "'Several' customer complaints were actually just two, and according to notations by the environmental health specialist ... the restaurant was quickly cleared and not required to take any further action."

All of the major quick-service chains insisted that food safety is a top priority and detailed company-wide procedures created to ensure proper handling of ingredients as well as restaurant cleanliness. But while some chains collect local health records from franchisees, others do not, particularly because the process can be cumbersome.

Dairy Queen's executive vice president of operations, Lon Brew. said, "It is not an easy task to get health inspection reports," even using the Internet. "We are very interested to use health inspection reports as a way to improve," but health records need to be more accessible and consistent, he said

Several chains said the news show's Washington, D.C.-based producers refused requests for dates and locations of the branches reviewed--even though the show said it worked from public records of reports issued to the restaurants. A McDonald's spokesman explained that the burger giant sought the information to "ensure that those issues are corrected immediately."

A spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to comment on the show, except to say "Dateline" conducted a three-hour interview with one of its officials, but the material was not aired.

Meanwhile, restaurant analyst John Glass of CIBC World Markets in Boston said the "Dateline" report did "not relate any specific outbreak of illness to these violations, but the negative publicity may still have a near-term impact on consumer perception of these brands."