Food Safety Complaints, Inspections, & Closures

PURPOSE

In Snohomish County, our health inspectors conduct routine risk-based inspections along with food safety complaint investigations to help ensure safe food handling practices in permitted establishments. They work to educate all food establishment operators, their employees and the public in proper food handling procedures. Their primary goal during routine inspections is to help operators become active managers. By being an active manager, the operator will be able to identify when a food safety concern occurs and how to quickly correct the issue before it becomes a problem. This preventative approach reduces foodborne illness and creates a safer food establishment for the public. 

Click on the links below to go directly to those topics:


REPORT A FOOD SAFETY COMPLAINT

The Environmental Health Division follows up on complaints to ensure that businesses are safely following the food safety rules and regulations. If you are concerned about unsanitary or unsafe conditions in a Snohomish County food establishment, please:

Examples of unsanitary or unsafe conditions include but are not limited to: 

  • observing a food worker touch food with bare hands. 
  • observing slime, mold, or a buildup of grime on surfaces. 
  • being served undercooked or raw meat where it should be fully cooked, such as chicken.

If you suspect you’ve gotten sick after eating food in Snohomish County, please visit our Food Illness Reporting page to submit an illness report.

To report concerns with commercially packaged food products, call the FDA Food and Cosmetic Information Center at 1-888-SAFEFOOD (1-888-723-3366) or submit an online report. More information can be found here.

To report concerns with meat, poultry, or raw produce products, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-674-6854 or submit an online complaint.

Food safety collage


FOCUS OF INSPECTIONS

Inspectors will focus their inspections on the food safety concepts that are most likely to lead to foodborne illness. Depending on the operation, these may include:

  • Managers and workers understand food safety concepts
  • Managers are ensuring that sick food workers stay home
  • Food workers are washing their hands
  • Foods are protected from cross-contamination, especially between raw animal foods and all other food items
  • Raw animal foods are thoroughly cooked before serving
  • Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) Foods are held at proper temperatures
  • TCS Foods are quickly cooled
  • Barriers are used to prevent bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods by use of utensils or single-use gloves
  • All foods are obtained from approved sources


View Inspection Report picLOOK UP FOOD SAFETY INSPECTION REPORTS

Establishments must post the most recent routine food safety inspection report from the Snohomish County Health Department or post information on how the consumer can obtain this information from the Health Department. 

Look for a View our Inspection Report poster which provides a QR code that customers can use to look up the inspection report online.



ENFORCEMENT POLICY

An enforcement policy helps to ensure consistency between all inspectors and provides better service to food operators and the community. The Snohomish County Health Department uses progressive enforcement for repeated violations through reinspections, developing risk control plans, office conferences and closures.


FOOD SERVICE ESTABLISHMENT CLOSURESRecent Cease-and-Desist Notifications

A food service establishment in Snohomish County must close if they are experiencing an imminent health hazard, such as a fire, flood, extended power outage, lack of water service, sewage back up, or a foodborne illness outbreak. If you experience any of these health hazards, call the Snohomish County Health Department at 425-339-5250. Your call will be forwarded to the appropriate inspector who will determine the next steps required to keep the public safe. The inspector can also help the establishment decide which food is safe to keep and what needs to be thrown away before you reopen.

A Cease-and-Desist occurs when an unpermitted foodservice operation is found preparing and selling food to the public. Unsafe food handling is often observed with these operations. Upon the Cease-and-Desist closure, the food safety team provides the unpermitted food business with educational information on how to obtain a valid permit along with written documentation requiring the operation to remain closed until the required permit has been obtained. To see a list of recent cease and desist notifications, go to our Unpermitted Foodservice Notifications page.