Baltimore County restaurant closures and health code violations can now be viewed in a new online dashboard.
Launched Tuesday, the county’s Food Establishment Closure Dashboard includes a map displaying all of the food businesses that have been ordered to close due to health code violations over the past year.
“Every resident deserves the ability to access critical information about their communities and this new tool is yet another way we are making information available,” Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in a statement. “Thanks to our BCSTAT data team, as well as the Baltimore County Department of Health, for creating this new tool that expands our administration’s work to provide more accessible and open government.”
The dashboard’s map depicts food establishments as colored dots based on when they last closed, with each color representing a three-month increment up to 12 months. Users can also view the restaurants in a list format.
Restaurants that reopen will remain listed on the dashboard for 12 months since their closure.
By clicking on each restaurant, users can find out the dates the business closed and reopened, as well as the “critical violations” that led to the closure.
“Our Environmental Health Services unit provides licensing, oversight and monitoring to more that 3,500 food service facilities across Baltimore County,” said the county’s health officer, Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch, in a statement. “Working in conjunction with these facilities helps to ensure the safety and well-being of their customers and their employees.”
As of this article’s publications, 124 Baltimore County food establishments have each experienced at least one health-related closure in the past 12 months.
Among the reasons for closures are: an unapproved source or process for obtaining food items; food spoilage and/or contamination; pest infestation; employee(s) working while ill; improperly washing hands; improper or unapproved cooling products; improper temperatures and/or insufficient refrigeration or hot holding equipment for cold and hot foods, respectively; improper cooking or reheating temperatures; unapproved water supply or a positive bacteriological test result; insufficient hot and cold running water; and sewage backup or overflow.
“If a critical violation is discovered during an inspection that is not corrected immediately, the restaurant will be required to close until all critical violations are corrected,” a dashboard disclaimer reads. “It is not uncommon for a closure event to be resolved in a single day.”
The county plans to update the dashboard daily. Data will be displayed for each restaurant for one year after their closure. After that one-year mark, health-related closure events will drop off the dashboard.
If a restaurant changes owners but continues to operate as that original establishment, its closure events will remain on the dashboard for the one-year period. However, a new, different restaurant that opens at the same location as a previous restaurant will not inherit its predecessor’s closure events, according to the dashboard disclaimer.
As being a former Timonium resident for twenty-five years and an Area Director and General Manager of restaurants, and one that gets back to Maryland about 4-5 times per year, I would really appreciate it if you listed the names of those restaurants that are currently closed due to poor health inspections and their reasons for the closings. I feel that the public needs to be made aware and has a right to know for their protection. Thank you!!
Sincerely,
Michael Derewicz
I wish there was a listing of the Baltimore County grocery stores and supermarkets as well. I am certain issues and violations are there too.
There needs to be a listing of restaurant closures for Balto Co.
Dots on a map are meaningless.
Just like the govt., to make things more complicated than need be
Is this a serious comment? The whole map is BALTIMORE COUNTY! The dots represent the each restaurant that was closed within BALTIMORE COUNTY. Click the dot it and names the restaurant and violation in BALTIMORE COUNTY. You cant blame the government for your incompetence.
You have to navigate the map. The dots shows the area, but the little pop-up windows shows the exact address. Click on the arrow and the violation pops up. It is a lot to read, but once you are familiar with it, all the info is there. Nicely done. I wish it included all food establishments, not just restaurants.