Dirty Dining in Austin.

A new report from The "Center for Science in the Public Interest" is highlighting the biggest health concerns for diners across America and in Austin.

A consumer advocacy group just released the findings of a report (pdf) that studied the health of restaurants across 20 cities in America. The "Center for Science in the Public Interest" took a different approach to restaurant inspections and the cleanliness of kitchens. Instead of just looking for the "dirtiest" restaurants and the cities with the worst health inspection records, the CSPI decided to look at how inspectors do their jobs in different cities and the major health hazards at eateries across the U.S.

Austin's restaurant grades.

Restaurants in Austin were included in the study and the findings have been released in the CSPI report. The most common violations reported by Austin health inspectors were food contact surface violations, and improper holding temperatures, both of which are considered critical violations. In fact Austin had more violations than any other city with a total of 58 violations. Austin restaurants were cited for accumulation of rodent droppings, a leaking roof in the food prep area and cooked poultry and raw fish stored six degrees higher than Food Code recommendations.

The Austin health department currently employees 22 inspectors to cover around forty two hundred restaurants. Although the report lists the violations, it does not list the restaurants that received the violations. Included in the Austin study were both fast-food, mid-priced and higher-end eateries including Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Zoot, Applebees, Red Lobster, McDonald's, Taco Bell and Ben and Jerry's. The health inspections scores for Austin area restaurants are available online at the City of Austin web site.

Health inspectors should clean up their national act.

The CSPI is calling for a more uniform inspection system across the U.S. is one of the major recommendations coming from the CSPI. Because different cites may have diverse methods for inspecting and grading restaurants, more lenient inspectors or a enough inspection personnel, it's tough to know which municipalities actually have the cleanest or dirtiest dining. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling for more communities across the nation to consider moving their inspection system to mimic restaurant-grading system in Los Angeles County. L.A. restaurants are required to post a letter grade in their front window showing their health inspection "grade." Diners are greeted with the restaurants' report card as they walk in the door of an establishment with an A, B or C grade. Because of the public display of the grading system, restaurateurs either proudly display their report or hang their head in shame. Either way, they have to display it. The result, foodborne illnesses are down 20 percent in LA.

The dirt on the worst restaurant dangers.

The CSPI report also turned up the dirt on the biggest major dining health hazards in the cities studied. According to the findings the big five are, food kept at unsafe temperatures, improper hand washing and cooking contaminated food surfaces and food from unsafe sources. Of lesser concern were the presence of sick restaurant workers, bare-hand contact with raw food and rodents and insects. What! How could rats and roaches fall further off the health radar than improper hand washing? It seems that although rodents and insects are disgusting, the unseen dangers lurking at a restaurant like bacteria on food surfaces and poor food storage are bigger dangers.