A Springfield restaurant had to close temporarily due to a lack of hot water this week, according to Springfield-Greene County Health Department’s food inspection reports.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken/Long John Silver at 240 N. West Bypass, had its permit suspended Tuesday after an inspector found they had no hot water. According to the Feb. 20 report, none of the facility’s plumbing fixtures had water that measured above 52 degrees Fahrenheit

Food inspections take place one to three times a year, depending on the type of food served, the population served, difficulty of food preparation and past history. Restaurants preparing food from raw ingredients are inspected more often “than convenience stores that serve only non-potentially hazardous foods, such as popcorn and soda,” according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Each report identifies what was happening at the establishment at that time. Consumers who want to know whether a violation is a one-time thing or a pattern are encouraged to refer to previous reports.
Issues found during inspection fall into either priority or non-priority violations. Priority violations impact the safety of the food, such as cross contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food, improper food temperature and poor personal hygiene and employee health. Multiple priority violations can lead to an establishment being shut down. Non-priority violations alone do not directly affect food safety, such as dirty floors, sticky tabletops or outside trash cans not being covered.