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DO CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS PREDICT POOR RESTAURANT INSPECTION SCORES? THE EXPERIENCE IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA, 2004–2005
Author(s) -
GOODIN AMANDA KATE,
KLONTZ KARL C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of food safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1745-4565
pISSN - 0149-6085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4565.2007.00066.x
Subject(s) - environmental health , medicine , sanitation , receipt , food service , confidence interval , public health , food safety , cohort study , business , marketing , nursing , accounting , pathology
Routine inspections of retail food service facilities by public health authorities serve as a major method of ensuring food sanitation. The objectives were to determine whether customer complaints received by restaurants in Alexandria, VA, during 2004 predicted the number of critical violations issued on subsequent food safety inspections. Using a retrospective cohort study design, we defined “exposed” restaurants as those that received ≥ 1 complaints from January 1 to December 31 of 2004 and “unexposed” restaurants as those that received none. We then counted the number of critical violations cited on food safety inspections conducted immediately after receipt of customer complaints (exposed restaurants) or on the first inspection conducted in 2005 (unexposed restaurants). A total of 144 exposed and 233 unexposed restaurants were enrolled in the study. Compared with unexposed restaurants, exposed restaurants were less likely to have received one or more critical violations (relative risk = 0.84, 95% confidence interval of 0.74–0.96, P = 0.01). Restaurant inspections conducted specifically in response to customer complaints may not identify critical violations any more often than inspections conducted at restaurants free from such complaints.