--- title: Pa. restaurant inspections lacking date: 2005-11-18T07:43:12-08:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/news_events/pa-restaurant-inspections-lacking" section: News --- [All News](/news_events) / # Pa. restaurant inspections lacking LATEST NEWS Pittsburgh Business Times 11/17/2005 Nearly a quarter of the state’s 17,000 restaurants, bars and retail food purveyors have been licensed in recent years without annual health and sanitation inspections, the auditor general said Thursday. About 4,000 eateries had license renewals even though they had not been inspected for at least two years, according to a two-year audit period that ended in December 2004. A deadly outbreak of hepatitis A at a Beaver County Chi-Chi’s restaurant in 2003 brought about the audit. During the audit period, no licenses were suspended or revoked, although many restaurants were warned for infractions such as not having proper toilet or hand-washing facilities, or for having rodents or insects on the premises. Auditor General Jack Wagner said the warnings lacked bite. “… Letters that were sent by the department were weak, providing no sense of urgency or seriousness, and did not contain a mandate to correct critical conditions,” he said in a news release. Wagner said, “Pennsylvania’s restaurant industry is generally clean and safe. But to maintain the public’s trust, the Department of Agriculture must improve its performance.” Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said the state would invest $600,000 to replace what he called an antiquated food inspection process with a Web-based system that will give consumers online access to food inspection reports. The Garrison Enterprises Digital Health Department System will allow consumers to look at the state’s restaurant inspection reports online, Wolff said. The system should be in place by next month. Allegheny County is one of only six counties in the state that have health departments that regulate eating and drinking establishments. 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