AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that health inspection results are now available through a webpage.
The portal is available on the Health Inspection Program website.
According to a release from Maine CDC, the public can now view inspection violations within the past three years for establishments licensed and inspected by HIP. These include restaurants, take-out food vendors, mobile food vendors, lodging, campgrounds, youth camps, public pools/spas, and body artists such as tattooists, body piercers, micropigmentationists, and electrologists.
When violations are detected, HIP first tries an educational approach and seeks voluntary compliance from licensed establishments, according to Maine CDC.
"Inspections are conducted unannounced by state and municipal health inspectors. Inspections are a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection," health officials said in Tuesday's release. "An inspection conducted on any given day may not represent the overall, long-term compliance of an establishment. Establishments are provided the opportunity to correct any observed violations while the inspector is on-site."
The state separates violations into two categories: critical and non-critical.
Maine DHHS said critical violations are violations that are likely to contribute to foodborne or other illnesses, infection, or environmental health hazards.
Non-critical violations, when left uncorrected, may become critical issues, according to Maine DHHS.
Critical violations must be corrected within 10 days, and non-critical violations are generally required to be corrected within 30 days. A failed inspection means an establishment had more than three critical violations or more than 10 non-critical violations, according to Maine CDC.
The timeframe for a follow-up inspection after each failed inspection depends on the nature of the violations that caused the failure. Repeat violations or failure to correct violations can lead to fines and penalties, Maine CDC said.
