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Why you should check the restaurant health score before you eat

A Fulton County health inspector shared stories of roaches being found at one restaurant sink and crawling around a dishwasher.

When deciding where you want to eat, you probably consider how long the wait will be or what you’re in the mood for, first.

But, do you ever consider the restaurant’s health score?

Next time, you might want to.

Christian Maile is proud to work at Carmine's Restaurant and Pizzeria in Alpharetta, who promises good food and a great score.

"The score is actually going to be up here. It's going to be a 96,” Christian said. “We like that. It's very good."

The score is given to restaurants by the Fulton County Board of Health after a visit by their inspectors.

At Carmine’s there are no major issues, however, county officials have run into serious health concerns during other inspections.

"Roaches, rats any kind of insects – it's going to get marked,” Eli Jones with the Fulton County Board of Health told 11Alive.

One metro-Atlanta restaurant was seen with roaches in the sink and crawling around a dishwasher. Jones talked about food not being cooked or being kept at the proper temperature. Those violations can cause food-borne related illnesses such as salmonella, e-coli and listeria.

And there was even mold inside a refrigerator and ice machine.

"Is the mold, let's say, inside an ice machine? Then it's obviously touching the ice, which anybody knows the ice goes in the drink,” Jones said.

You’ll want to keep this in mind the next time you eat. The higher the inspection score, the safer the food.

Inspectors score a restaurant by looking for discrepancies such as employee hygiene practices, food contamination concerns, along with pest and animal issues.

The more discrepancies a place has, the lower the score.

For instance, to get a high score of "A" restaurants have to have 10 or less deficiencies. A "B" is 10 more problems. If a place has a "C" there are issues, while a “U" it's getting ugly.

Check next time you stop some place to eat because you don't want your favorite restaurant serving up some food-borne diseases.

"It can drive people away,” Christian said. “It can make or break a business."

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