Restaurants and Campus Dining Facilities Fail Inspection Exams

(Food Inspection Letter Grade at the Market at Crosby)

What do McAllister’s, Abner’s, Bouré, Back Yard Burger and the Market at Crosby all have in common? They are all restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi… and they have all received C’s in inspections at some point.

However, this issue is not limited to Mississippi. In New York City, health inspectors have started requiring restaurants to post letter grades for cleanliness. In March, Fordham University was cited for violations including live roaches and unsanitized food-preparation surfaces to qualify for a C, the lowest grade, inducing a mass meeting between students and administrators. Last month at the Pace University in Manhattan, the city unexpectedly closed the main cafeteria all together for two meal periods.

UNDERSTANDING FOOD FACILITY INSPECTION GRADES

Grade C violations are given if some or all of the critical violations found were not corrected during the inspection. Restaurants cited with a C are required to be re-inspected and must have all violations corrected within 10 days or they will be shut down. Restaurants are inspected a minimum of once every six months.
“We received a violation last summer for having the cooler temperature about three degrees above what it should have been. This comes from opening and closing the cooler a lot in the morning while getting set up for the day,” John Spreafico, bar manager of Bouré restaurant said.

Bouré quickly corrected the problem and was given an A on the next inspection. Spreafico claims that typically the two most frequent violations that restaurants are cited for are the temperature of the cooler or for not having a lid on your cup. ”They will also get you for having seafood or meat out without running water over it,” Spreafico adds.

College campuses, which serve more daily meals than a typical restaurant, are a whole other category. Students can easily go online and find the unpleasant details of each inspection as well. The Market at Crosby dormitory is one restaurant that received a C on the Food Facility Inspections for Lafayette County.

“I’m not sure why we received a C last time during inspection but I know why we currently have a B. We have a B right now because last time we never posted our inspection letter grade when we received a C,” Kesha from the Market at Crosby said.

Restaurants are required to post their letter grades at all times, even if the grade is disconcerting. All of the restaurants in the Student Union at Ole Miss have their letter grades posted and all have A’s. The University of Mississippi is doing a good job of keeping the campus eateries sanitary. However, they are not the only place in Oxford that needs to be vigilant of food inspections. It seems to be a universal problem.

Sources: John Spreafico, bar manager of Bouré, (601)-941-9515
Kesha, employee at the Market at Crosby, (662)-915-1933