Avoiding a health code violation: In-depth look at Riverside County’s food safety inspection process

Most people don't usually think about food safety until they or someone they know gets sick from contaminated food. 

Every day, inspectors with the Riverside County Environmental Health Department go out and assess whether food facilities meet health standards. Most inspections are routine, but some are prompted by complaints. 

A health scare at Desert Regional Medical Center caused one of its kitchens to temporarily close in late February due to a pest infestation, which has been corrected. However, that incident led us to dig into the County's health inspection process.

"When we're there, we're looking at a general snapshot of what we're seeing at that particular time. it's one of the reasons we do unannounced inspections because we want to see what day in and day out is this facility doing," according to Jenay Marcotte, Program Chief and Public Information Officer for the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.

News Channel 3's Jennifer Franco shares the common problems inspectors see, how they address them, and one of the challenges the County is working to overcome.

Watch her special in-depth report, 'Health Code Violation', tonight at 6:00 pm.m on News Channel 3.