Chemung County restaurant inspections: How safe is your favorite place to eat?

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Chemung County restaurant inspection records show several food establishments received three or more violations in July and June, according to the most recent data released by New York state.

One Elmira fast food franchise, for example, had three non-critical violations in July, including:

  • nonfood contact surfaces of equipment not clean

  • plumbing and sinks not properly sized, installed, maintained; equipment and floors not properly drained

  • floors, walls, ceilings, not smooth, properly constructed, in disrepair, dirty surfaces

Several other restaurants were cited for not keeping food properly refrigerated and not protecting food from potential sources of contamination during storage, preparation, display, transportation and service.

In many cases, follow-up visits to the restaurants showed no violations.

Inspection reports are public documents, and the online database at data.stargazette.com has the results of inspections in Elmira and across New York. Readers can see when a facility was last inspected and get a summary of the violations inspectors found.

The database can be searched by county, or type in a name or address to find records for a specific restaurant.

Explore:NY statewide database of restaurant inspections

Each report is a snapshot in time, reflecting observations from a single day when inspectors were in the restaurant.

Keep in mind the world of restaurant inspections is fluid. Your favorite eatery might have received a handful of violations and then quickly cleaned up and passed the next inspection with none. A clean slate in one report also doesn't mean problems can't arise later.

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Many problems can often be traced to food service employees who either ignore standard operating procedures or show up ill and pass on food-borne illnesses.

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Elmira area restaurant inspections: Search our database

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