A survey of 817 restaurant inspections in Deschutes County during the first six months of 2024 shows that 10.5% of restaurants had employees who used improper personal hygiene, such as not enough hand-washing, which could lead to food-borne illnesses for diners.

The finding was the result of a six-month risk factor study the county conducted in partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The study required scoreless restaurant inspections for the six-month period instead of the health department’s usual method of assigning a score of up to 100 based on an inspector’s observations.

“The study was simply a way to quantify which risk factors we observed more than others,” said Eric Mone, Deschutes County Health Services environmental health supervisor. “Having the data in hand is more meaningful than guessing and making assumptions.”

During the study period, inspectors observed 65 restaurants out of compliance with guidelines about when to wash raw animal foods, chemical handling and garbage disposal. The study also found 92 out of compliance with the handling of hot and cold food temperatures.

The nonscored inspections during the study period were solely focused on identifying instances of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s five food-borne illness risk factors, Mone said. Those are: inadequate cooking, unsafe food sources, improper holding temperatures of food, poor personal hygiene and contamination.

This was the first time the county participated in this risk factor study, which was a way for the county’s 10 inspectors to focus on risk factors that could lead to food-borne illness, Mone said. When health and safety violations were detected during the study, they were corrected on-site during the inspection, or a plan was put in place that included a re-inspection.

“One of our interventions is to encourage food service operators to attend our food manager training courses that we conduct four times a year,” Mone said. “The course we teach does a great job of showing attendees how to inspect yourself, monitor employees’ health, hand-washing, checking hot and cold food holding temperature, testing dishwasher water, detergents and sanitizer concentrations and verifying that incoming food off of the delivery truck are at proper temperatures.”

The county participated in the FDA risk factor study to collect data results from 650 brick-and-mortar restaurants and 250 mobile food operations. The data will be used to develop interventions to reduce illness.

When health inspectors come in, Joe Kim, co-owner of Yoli Korean restaurant in Bend, said it sometimes can feel like mom or dad checking in on a child. But actually the inspectors are fair and want to see the owners comply with safety requirements to keep customers healthy.

“The inspectors tend to try and help you find ways to meet their criteria as opposed to punishing you for mistakes or misinterpretations of the rule/criteria,” said Kim.

Kim, who launched Yoli with his wife, Laura, in 2022, had previously co-owned Five Fusion & Sushi Bar. The three-time James Beard Foundation semifinalist is no stranger to restaurant inspections.

“It’s more difficult with a larger restaurant and larger staff to ensure all of the staff are meeting all of the criteria and have an understanding of all of the health codes,” Kim said.

Across the country, more than half the food-borne illness outbreaks come from food made in restaurants, according to the FDA.

Participating in the study initially caused a glitch in the reporting software the county uses to publish restaurant inspections online. The county inspects restaurants and food trucks twice a year.