Has your favorite bar or restaurant in Bucks County been inspected lately? How to find out

If having someone else prepare your food makes you squeamish, dining out can come with a mix of emotions.

While it’s fun to try a new food truck everyone’s raving about or take a break from cooking by visiting your favorite eatery, you might be left wondering what’s happening behind the scenes and if the food you’re being served is safe.

Health inspections exist to hopefully answer those questions.

All retail food facilities are inspected by the Bucks County Department of Health. With a staff of 12 inspectors, the department provides oversight to more than 3,000 facilities throughout the county, including at least 2,700 full-service restaurants.

Here’s how these inspections can help to keep you safe:

Inspections week of Sept 16-20: A look at the latest round of Bucks County restaurant inspections: Week of Sept. 16-20

Are food trucks and bars subject to health inspections in Bucks County?

Restaurants, bars and food trucks are all considered retail food facilities — as well as other commercial establishments selling or serving food to the public, such as caterers, grocery stores, farm market vendors, nursing home kitchens and school cafeterias — and are therefore subject to regular health inspections.

How often are restaurants inspected?

All retail food facilities are inspected at least twice a year.

What is looked for during a restaurant inspection?

To keep the public safe, restaurants and all other retail food facilities are required to follow the Pennsylvania Food Code, which is adapted from the current U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Code .

Inspections help to educate business owners while protecting public health, said Phil Smith, director of the Bucks County Environmental Health Bureau. Inspectors are to look for unhealthy conditions or practices that could lead to food-borne illnesses during a visit.

“The more often you’re out at a place, the more education you can do, the more opportunities there are for correction. It’s not punitive,” he said.

Some of the worst violations that will temporarily shut down a business include a sewage backup, a lack of hot water, an inability to store food at the proper temperature, a lack of electricity or an unpaid license fee.

“Food storage, temperature control, heating and cooling of foods the right way, rodents — these are things that if not done correctly will get people sick,” Smith said.

Keep in mind, however, that one good or bad report on its own is just a small part of the bigger picture.

“It is only a snapshot of what we saw that day," Smith said. "If you want to know how a restaurant is, look over three years’ worth of inspection reports to get a better idea of a restaurant’s long-term performance."

Inspections week of Sept. 9-13: A look at Bucks County restaurant inspections for week of Sept. 9-13

Where to find the latest restaurant inspection reports

As a service to our subscribers, we will be publishing a weekly list of the most recent restaurant, bar and food truck inspections, which will include a summary of findings, plus a link to the full report.

To find an inspection report for a specific restaurant, Bucks County provides a searchable online database for its retail food facility reports at bucks-pa.healthinspections.us .

If you witness a food safety concern, complaints can be lodged by emailing the Bucks County Department of Health at foodcomplaints@buckscounty.org . Be sure to include the name of the facility, the date you visited the facility and the nature of the complaint.

All complaints are to be investigated and kept confidential.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Has your favorite bar or restaurant in Bucks County been inspected lately? How to find out