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I know wondering if theatres under go health inspections of their concession stands and how often does the code inforcement police come in? If this questions has been asked before, sorry to repeat.

We get a health inspection every year. We try to address each item the inspector brings up. One year we had to paint the back room. He always hits us on the cleanliness of the floor drain.

Then he hands you the form after you have signed it and proclaims that we are his wife’s favorite theatre and that they attend once per week.

He is only here to help; he isn't the enemy.

We also get inspected regularly and must comply if we add a new cooked product. They shot us down for hot dogs because we didn't have two seperate sinks behind concession. Basically we're treated like a restaurant.

Health inspector... what's that?

I've been operating this theatre now for 32 1/2 years and haven't had a health inspection yet. No licenses are required for theatre refreshment stands in this town that I know of. I know we have one, and he does come to the movies here, but has never done an inspection. Maybe he's just satisfied by what he sees when he's here at the movies.

I haven't seen one.

Wisconsin has 2 seperate health inspection agencies--Dept of Ag, which deals with bakeries, farms, cheese factories, ice cream stands, ect--and the State dept of Health, which deals with any business dealing with raw meats, ect. As far as theatres go, as long as we stay away from hot dogs, soft serve machines, hamburgers, pizza, ect they both leave us alone. The Dept of Ag did try and get into inspecting theatres because of ice machines, but our lobbyists were too strong. Same lobbyists taht got our equipment off the personal property tax role :0 :0 . I do see the Ag inspector once a year because I have a "Lil Orbits" donut set-up, but because it is portable, and I use it in different locations, he just inspects the equipment, not the theatre I store it at.

We got inspected once a year and here it is a joke. we would recieve perfect scores and I would find violations. (stuff stored in the 3 compartment sink.) gunk on the floor and a I know we had mice out the wazoo (of course we were having them taken care of.
But it was about like the fire inspection.
I found that the fire alarm had been disconnected because it was making a beeping noise so the previous manager had oulled the fuse out of the panel. (who knows how long that was that way before I found it.

We are inspected once a year by our county health dept. Their inpsection is based on a point system. So many points for each infraction. You are allowd 5 points and still be issued a permit, with the understanding that you will make repairs.As a rule we try to have some small obvious infraction for them to find. Inspectors are usually trained that there are no perfect inspections so they have to find something. Better for them to find some minor thing easy to correct than to look until thay find something major and expensive to repair.

rsmith - When your inspectors find an infraction. How long do they give you to rectify the issue. Does it vary with the infraction or is the time frame set?

In our area , if you have not exceeded the allowable number of points , then you have until the next inspection to correct them , 1 yr. If you have a major health safety issue you are definitely over the point limit and are subject to being shut down immediately until corrections are made. These decisions are made somewhat subjectively by the health inspectors. We have never had any major issues to deal with so far. Our health dept also requires us to have at least one liscensed food tech in our employ. They require the person to take a class and pass an exam. Although all this can be cumbersome at times , mostly the health dept is pretty good to work with.

[This message has been edited by rsmith (edited November 08, 2002).]