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Want to find out how your favorite MN restaurant did on its health inspection? Be prepared to wait

Minneapolis will soon become the first in the state to publish the information online.

MINNEAPOLIS — If you want to find out how your favorite Minnesota restaurant did on its health inspection - be prepared to wait. 

While the information is public, in Minnesota, you have to request it from the regulatory agency, which can take time. 

"It could take a couple days, up to a couple weeks to actually get that information," said Melanie Firestone. "You'd have to plan weeks ahead of time."

Firestone is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. Along with professor Dr. Craig Hedberg, she published a study which looked into how easily accessible health inspection reports could impact public health. 

The study specifically looked at data from New York City, which in 2010 started posting letter grades associated with a restaurant's inspection score in the given restaurant.

Credit: AP Images

They found that since the letter grades went up, rates of salmonella infection in NYC decreased 5.3 percent every year compared to the rest of the state. 

"If a restaurant operator perceives that a 'C' is bad for business, they might be incentivized to improve sanitary conditions in their restaurant and then have a better score the next time around," Firestone said. 

Credit: KARE
Melanie Firestone is a PhD candidate at the U of MN's School of Public Health.

Minneapolis hopes to begin publishing their restaurant health inspections online by mid December. When they do, they'll be the first in the state to publish the public information online. 

"Nationally, though, it is [publishing online] the norm. So we're behind the curve there," said Ryan Krick, with the Minneapolis Health Department's Environmental Health Division. 

The city is still considering exactly how the online system will look, but they plan on making it easy for a person to search for a specific restaurant's inspection and giving context as to what that inspection means. 

Credit: City of Minneapolis
An example of what Minneapolis' new online restaurant health inspection database might look like. The city's health department says they're still finalizing the plans for the tool.

"Normal inspection reports, they're not made for reading," said Krick. "If you don't understand the food code or what the violations mean, the general public may not interpret that information the same way a health inspector would or a restaurant would."

That's the main concern of Hospitality Minnesota, the association which represents restaurants in Minnesota. In a statement, they said:

“Food safety and the safety of restaurant guests is a top priority. In a culture where reputation and quality are your currency, no one cares more about food safety and the experience of the customer. Restaurants work collaboratively with the city of Minneapolis to ensure high standards for public health. As the city explores electronic records, it’s critical that they help the public understand what these records actually mean, so they are not misinterpreted or misunderstood.”

Krick thinks that a big reason why more Minnesota health departments haven't jumped on board.

"Because they're nervous about that context," he explained.

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