Frequently Asked Questions

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Q: How safe is it to eat at a facility with less than a 90.0 score?
2. Q: What kind of information will I need to find out if a restaurant's food is to blame for making me ill?
3. Q: What do I need to do if I visit a restaurant and don't see a grade card?
4. Q: It seems that lots of restaurant workers handle money and food and don't wash their hands. How concerned should I be about this?
5. Q: Why are all foodservice workers not required to wear gloves when handling food?
6. Q: What are the symptoms of a foodborne illness?
7. Q: How long does it take for a foodborne illness to occur?
8. Q: Do I need to see a doctor about my foodborne illness?
9. Q: What information do I need to have when I call Environmental Services?
10. Q: What do I do with any food I have left of the suspected meal?
11. Q: Is the information about my illness confidential?
12. Q: What happens when you go to the facility to investigate where I purchased the food?


Q: How safe is it to eat at a facility with less than a 90.0 score?
A: The score posted on the grade/scorecard indicates the level of foodservice sanitation observed by the Environmental Health Specialist on the day the inspection was completed. Deductions for violations vary from 0.5 points to a maximum of 5.0 points; there are 34 separate items noted on the restaurant evaluation form. Critical item violations are more likely to cause foodborne illness.

Q: What kind of information will I need to find out if a restaurant's food is to blame for making me ill?
A: It is important to call our offices at (919) 989-5180 as soon as you suspect a foodborne illness. We are open Monday-Friday, from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. You can get sick anytime within 2-72 hours or longer after eating contaminated food. Symptoms can vary from mild nausea to severe abdominal cramps, with a variety of symptoms in between. The appearance of symptoms depends on the amount of contaminated food eaten, the physical condition of the person, the amount of stomach acid in their digestive system, etc. Although most persons suspect the last thing they ate because they did not feel poorly until after eating this food, illnesses often come from something eaten a day or two before. For this reason, Health Department personnel want to know everything you've eaten or drank for 3 days, if you've traveled recently, if you have pets, and so on. If you are able to visit a doctor and get them to take specimens such as stool or vomitus samples, proof of foodborne illness is much easier.

Q: What do I need to do if I visit a restaurant and don't see a grade card?
A: If the facility is new and has only been open a couple of weeks, they may not have been evaluated yet. The Health Department only conducts evaluations for the purpose of posting a score/grade on an unannounced basis, and this requires the facility to be open and operating. When entering a facility, the grade card should be readily visible to you. If the facility has been open and operating and you do not see a grade/score card, ask the management where the card is located. If they say they do not have one, you may check our website for the score and/or call our office if the card is not found.

Q: It seems that lots of restaurant workers handle money and food and don't wash their hands. How concerned should I be about this?
A: The Department of Agriculture has supplied us with information that indicates that money is not a good surface for the growth of bacteria. However, that does not mean that it cannot be a source of contamination to hands. Therefore, we do respond to complaints about handling money and food without washing hands. It does not represent a good sanitation practice.

Q: Why are all foodservice workers not required to wear gloves when handling food?
A: Gloves are not the answer to poor foodhandling. Environmental Health Specialists in this department have observed persons washing gloves and handling food with gloves that are contaminated from garbage, visits to the bathroom, sneezes, etc. Unfortunately those persons that handle food improperly with their hands are just as likely to mishandle food with gloves. Gloves must be changed just as often as a person would wash their hands, and sometimes the gloves give a person a false sense of cleanliness with regard to their hands. Gloves are also porous, which explains why they cannot be washed in lieu of changing. Therefore, it is acceptable to handle food with clean and sanitized utensils, clean hands with clean gloves, or with clean hands that have been washed with an antibacterial soap or hand sanitizer.

Q: What are the symptoms of a foodborne illness?
A: Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, fever, headache, jaundice, tingling or numbness, muscle aches and pains, and many others. Not all foodborne illnesses have the same symptoms and the severity of symptoms varies from one person to the next.

Q: How long does it take for a foodborne illness to occur?
A: Foodborne illness caused by chemical contaminants or that caused by allergic reactions to elevated histamine levels in fish can occur within minutes, while other foodborne diseases may occur anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks after consumption of the contaminated food/drink. Most persons will assume that the last meal eaten is the cause of their illness; this is very often inaccurate.

Q: Do I need to see a doctor about my foodborne illness?
A: This is an individual choice based on how the individual is feeling; however, no foodborne illness can be proven unless the causative agent can be isolated from both the person and the food that they consumed. Therefore, it is very important that a doctor is seen so that specimens of blood, vomitus, or stool can be taken and that you contact Environmental Services as soon as an illness is suspected so that food, drink, or food contact surfaces can be sampled in a timely manner.

Q: What information do I need to have when I call Environmental Services?
A: The first tool that Environmental Services needs to investigate a complaint of foodborne illness is a thorough case history. You need to be prepared to provide information about your symptoms, the time, date and location of consumption of the suspected meal, when symptoms occurred, as well as a three-day food history of items consumed prior to becoming ill. In cases where a large group of persons consumed the same foods (such as a reunion, party, etc.), food histories must be taken from those persons not showing symptoms as well as from those who are ill. You must leave information about how you can be contacted during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. so that additional information may be gathered as necessary. From the information gathered from these case histories, Environmental Services will make a statistical analysis about the type of illness and pinpoint the foods most likely to have caused the illness.

Q: What do I do with any food I have left of the suspected meal?
A: Environmental Services can only test foods that are still in the ?chain of custody? of the restaurant or facility where the meal was prepared, so meals taken away from the facility cannot be analyzed at the laboratory. Individuals can take the leftover food to a private lab for analysis if they desire, but the results will not be included in the investigation.

Q: Is the information about my illness confidential?
A: Yes. Medical information about the individuals who are ill is confidential and will only be shared with the permission of that person. However, information about the investigation that takes place at the facility where the food was purchased is public information.

Q: What happens when you go to the facility to investigate where I purchased the food?
A: A true foodborne illness investigation is treated as a high priority by Environmental Services. Provided that the information about the illness is available to the department in a timely fashion, a full investigation will take place. An investigation of a foodborne illness will involve the tracking of the suspected food from the supplier through storage, preparation, and service to the consumer. This investigation may include: