The Real Deal: School Cafeteria Inspections

Описание: YOUR DESCRIPTION HAS REACHED THE LIMIT OF CHARACTERS ALLOWED AND WAS CUT. ALBANY-How safe is the food your child is served in school? It's likely parents have never given it a second thought but health inspectors have and believe it or not, a number of schools here in the Capital Region have been cited for critical violation in food safety standards.

All school cafeterias are inspected at least twice a year, so far this year, close to 100 schools locally have been cited for issues like having insects or rodents present, inaccurate food thermometers and dirty walls and floors but those violations are not considered critical. About two dozen schools have been cited for issues that if left uncorrected, could pose a serious health concern to your kids.

When it comes to the food being consumed by kids in the lunch line, health inspectors take a hard stance. "We look at how the foods are prepared and served to the children to make sure that they're safe, they are in temperature and no one ends up sick because they're eating there," says Marianne Stone, an Associate Public Health Sanitarian in Albany County.

For the most part, schools with critical violations have problems with dented and leaking canned food, "the dented cans might be a source of botulism," Stone says. Other struggles? Keeping the food your children eat either hot or cold enough and improperly labeling toxic chemicals like cleaning solutions which create a risk for contamination.

Across the Capital Region there are nearly two dozen schools that have been cited for these type of critical violations (see list below) this year and it crosses the spectrum of urban, suburban, private and parochial school districts. "We're serving over 10,000 meals a day, making sure that every single one of those meals is safe so when these things do happen, we look at how it happened, how to make sure it never happens again and do everything we can to get it fixed. Typically, it's within minutes or hours, it's never a long standing thing," says Lisa Finkenbinder the School Lunch Director for the Albany City School District.

In most cases, any potentially impacted food is thrown out before it ever reaches a tray, if it's a problem with dented cans, they are sent back to the supplier and if it's a maintenance issue, repair folks are called in immediately. Inspectors say local schools are very response to the issues, "we love serving the kids, we want nothing more than for them to be happy, enjoy their meal and obviously for everything to be safe for everybody," Finkenbinder says.

Below is a list of Schools in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga Counties that have recently been cited for critical violations:

To search the health inspection records for local schools and restaurants: https://health.data.ny.gov/Health/Foo...


Abram Lansing Elementary School, Cohoes City Schools (Inspection: 9/21/15)
-Canned foods in poor condition

Harmony Hill School, Cohoes City Schools (Inspection: 9/21/15)
-Canned foods in poor condition

Van Schaick School, Cohoes City Schools (Inspection: 2/12/15)
-Water/Ice: Unsafe, unapproved sources, cross connections

Albany Academy for Girls (Inspection: 9/29/15)
-Potentially hazardous foods not kept at or below 45F during cold storage
-Food not protected during storage

Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls (Inspection:4/16/2015)
-Enough refrigerated storage equipment is not present

Arbor Hill Elementary, Albany City School District (Inspection: 5/28, 9/10, 9/28/2015)
-Potentially hazardous foods are not kept at or above 140F during hot holding
-Enough hot holding equipment is not present

Eagle Point Elementary, Albany City Scho