Dirty Dining in Tucson.

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

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 nation, including Tucson.

Tucson's restaurant grades.

Restaurants in Tucson and were included in the CSPI study and the findings have been released in their report. The City of Tucson inspects food establishments one to three times per year with twenty inspectors covering over four thousand food establishments. In Tucson health violations are rated "excellent," "good," "needs improvement" and "provisional license." The largest amount of violations in Tucson came from improper holding temperatures, employee hygiene and improper barehand contact with food. 29 of the 30 inspection reports requested for the CSPI survey were provided. Among the violations Tucson restaurants were cited for included a steam unit not held above 130 degrees and chicken salad and cottage cheese temperatures at 45 degrees.

Although the report lists the violations, it does not list the restaurants that received the violations. Included in the Tucson study were fast food, mid-priced and higher-end eateries including Gold Room, Janos, Arizona Inn, Olive Tree, Wildflower, Taco Bell and Poco Loco Tacos. The reports are available online at the Tucson.com.

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 the 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.