Baltimore County Releases Food Establishment Closure Dashboard
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski today released a new data dashboard displaying information regarding recent Baltimore County Department of Health food facility inspections.
This new dashboard expands the Olszewski administration’s unprecedented efforts to provide more information to the public and increase government transparency.
“Every resident deserves the ability to access critical information about their communities and this is new tool is yet another way we are making information available,” Olszewski said. “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.”
“Our Environmental Health Services unit provides licensing, oversight and monitoring to more that 3,500 food service facilities across Baltimore County,” said Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch, Baltimore County Health Officer and Director of Health and Human Services. “Working in conjunction with these facilities helps to ensure the safety and well-being of their customers and their employees.”
The Food Establishment Closure Dashboard displays establishments that have experienced closure due to a critical violation discovered during an inspection that could not be corrected immediately.
Public data such as the establishment name, date of closure(s), reason for closure(s), and reopen date(s) will be available by selecting an establishment from the map or list.
Restaurants that have experienced recent closures are differentiated by color.
The list of critical violations that would result in closure includes:
- Food items obtained from an unapproved source or using an unapproved process
- Spoilage and/or contamination of food
- Pest infestation
- Employee(s) working while ill
- Not properly washing hands
- Not cooling products properly or not approved to cool products
- Cold foods held at improper temperatures and/or insufficient refrigeration
- Hot foods held at improper temperatures and/or insufficient hot holding equipment
- Food(s) not cooked to proper temperature(s)
- Food(s) not reheated to proper temperature(s) or not approved to reheat products
- Unapproved water supply or positive bacteriological result
- Insufficient hot and cold running water
- Sewage backup or overflow
Data will be displayed for one year on a rolling basis. Restaurants with no health-related closure events during this time will not be shown.
The Food Establishment Closure dashboard is expected to be updated daily.
This latest dashboard joins Baltimore County's growing set of resources that provide unprecedented transparency for residents and reflect Olszewski's commitment to a more open and accountable government. Prior efforts include:
- Launching BCSTAT, Baltimore County’s first data-driven performance management program that aims to improve performance, ensure data quality, enhance transparency and increase accountability across government.
- Releasing the Baltimore County Open Budget platform to empower residents to explore the County's budget in an online, easily understood format.
- Expanding Open Budget to include the Open Checkbook tool, which allows users to view County expenditures down to the individual check level.
- Creating a dashboard displaying detailed information about fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose incidents occurring in Baltimore County.
- Providing a number of downloadable raw data sets related to numerous government functions and services.
The Food Establishment Closure Dashboard is available here.