"Name And Shame": Food Inspector Reveals How To Check If A Restaurant Is Safe To Eat At

When’s the last time that you had a bad meal outside of your home? Oh, and we’re not talking about the taste, rather, the hygiene, the awful food preparation standards, and ignoring safety rules. Odds are that you felt the effects pretty quickly after the first few bites and your upset stomach won’t let you go back there again. Ever!

Obviously, knowing what restaurants to avoid would be better than risking everything yourself (your body will thank you for it). That’s where one food inspector’s spot-on advice comes in for Australians and Americans alike. Food inspector SemyKitten had some great tips on how exactly to find out whether a food truck or a restaurant has failed and been issued a penalty online.

Check out her videos below, dear Pandas, and let us know about the most awful experience you’ve ever had with a meal in the comments. Pssst for those of you Pandas living in the US, SemyKitten noted that you ought to Google ‘food inspection reports’ and then add your county name.

More info: TikTok | Instagram | FoodAuthority.nsw.gov.au/offences

The food inspector pointed out in one of her videos that her job is to evaluate the quality of hygiene standards everywhere: from supermarkets to those food trucks that always catch my eye with their delicious-looking nosh, but which I’m always worried about when it comes to the actual quality.

SemyKitten emphasized that every single offense is logged into a database that the general public can easily access. All it takes is a few minutes of research and there you go—now you’ll know if that place you’ve been dying to eat at will make you feel like you’re up in heaven or down in hell.

There’s a wide variety of things that health inspectors check for. From figuring out whether all the permits are up to date to checking the actual hygiene and safety standards in the food prep areas. For instance, if you’re running a restaurant you really want to make sure that there are no pests skittering about on your floor (the inspector might make an exception to a rat named Remy, but don’t hold your breath).

What’s more, food inspectors check how food items are stored. If food is stored improperly and at the wrong temperature, this leads to bacteria populations exploding and that’s what can cause food-related illnesses, both mild and horrifying.

For example, one thing that you probably already know from watching all of those awesome TV cooking shows is that you should never keep cooked and raw meat next to each other, so as to avoid cross-contamination.

These might be the basics, but you’d be surprised how many places are sloppy with their standards when they know nobody’s looking! So it’s vital that food inspectors are able to see past charades and temporary clean-ups. It’s all done for the sake of our safety and eating pleasure, after all.