Google searches help track sources of foodborne illness

7 years ago

From an article in today's paper:

Harvard's Public Health Center is using Google tracking to find restaurants that make people sick. This is how they do it:

If you've been to Mom's Diner, and hours or even days later start searching on terms like "nausea" and "stomach cramps," there is a likelihood of a problem at Mom's. In Harvard's tests in Las Vegas and Chicago, health inspectors were sent out when the searches turned queasy. Over half the time -- 52 percent -- they found a problem at the restaurant where Google users had eaten.

Chicago has 38 inspectors for more than 8,000 restaurants. Using routine inspections, they find problems only 23 percent of the time, less than half the rate in tests of Google tracking.

Reading this, you might worry that Google Maps knows where you've been and is reporting it to the authorities. But researchers at Harvard used data that was unconnected to any specific person. They knew only that there had been unnamed people at a given restaurant searching for terms related to foodborne illness.

Featured Answer

colleenoz

7 years ago

Anglophilia, the Health Department isn’t advertising who they’ve inspected using Google to target their inspections, any more than they advertise the restaurants they inspect in the usual way. By your reasoning, the Google targeting is still better because using their usual methods and only finding a problem with 23% means that 77% have been unfairly maligned.

In any case, I think you are ambitious in your claim that every restaurant is inspected. I have worked in kitchens that were never inspected, or only inspected every few years. (This didn’t mean we didn’t keep them spotless and used safe food handling practices, just because and also who could say that lightning wouldn’t strike?)

This premise is also implied by the article, pointing out how few inspectors there are. And surely if every single place was inspected then the hit rate would be the same in both cases because the problem places the Google targeting is helping the inspectors to find, would have been inspected already, which clearly they weren’t.

And you just have to watch a few episodes of Restaurant Impossible or Kitchen Nightmares to see that there is any number of places run by qualified chefs who admit they know about safe food handling practices, who just don’t bother and have truly filthy kitchens.

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Comments (15)

PRO
Anglophilia
7 years ago
People in the restaurant business DETEST this. As you say, only half the time they found a problem with the Google thing. And in Chicago, only about 1/4th.

This kind of thing can destroy a restaurant's reputation and cause their business to plummet. Most of the time, the person had a virus and the restaurant had nothing to do with it at all.

It's important to ascertain if everyone in the party ate the same thing, and did they all get sick? If not, it was most likely NOT the restaurant.
colleenoz
7 years ago
No Anglophilia, you have misread the story. The figures are that using _normal, non Google_ methods, the inspectors find that 23% of the restaurants they visit have issues. Using Google searches to better target their inspections, given that their workforce isn’t large enough to constantly inspect everywhere, they find that 52%, or more than double the number of visits, find issues.

The kitchens are not closed solely on the basis of people who searched Google. They are closed because the inspectors were alerted to a possible problem, went and looked and found the kitchen’s cleanliness and/or food handling practices were not up to scratch. This can only be a good thing.
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jrb451
Original Author
7 years ago
Yes colleenoz, this is a good thing. It also makes me wonder about all the other things, good and bad, that are currently being done with our data. Don't know whether to tip my hat to technology or put on my aluminum foil skull cap. ;-)
Rosie
7 years ago
I'm not clear on how google is able to connect the searches for nausea or stomach cramps with people who ate at Mom's Restaurant. If the restaurant customers remain anonymous how is the connection made? It would make more sense to me if the google searches were for something like "stomach cramps at Mom's Restaurant" which would connect the two,
User
7 years ago
I have to agree with Dawn the only way that a connection could be found is if there was a review posted for a restaurant. Then was the person not feeling well before they went. Did they just not like the restaurant and decided that was why they became ill even it several members of their family already are ill. All restaurants will have a problem of some type if you ever look at your own regions health department inspections.

There are also the weasels that when refused something decide to place a bad review.
Texas_Gem
7 years ago
Google uses the GPS data on your device so it knows your phone was at this restaurant. Then a few days later when you start feeling sick and do a Google search for stomach cramps, the researchers cross reference other phones that were also at that location on that day and if a large number were also searching "stomach cramps" the health inspector goes out to that restaurant and does an inspection.
Rosie
7 years ago
Ahhhh, I see.

Well, in that case, I guess those of us who don't have phones aren't trackable. And, I'm ok with that. I don't like the idea being followed everywhere I go.
PRO
Anglophilia
7 years ago
So, they found a few "violations" in about half of the restaurants. Were they violations that would lead to food borne illness or just the usual run of the mill things that often are found in commercial kitchens but are only at RISK or doing harm, and have not actually done so?

Even then, that means that 50% of restaurants were FALSELY accused of causing something they did not. In the restaurant business, that can be the make or break moment for that restaurant financially. It's just not a good idea. The Health Dept regularly inspects ALL restaurants, and anyone running one who has any training in the food industry is well aware of all the various regulations and watches the place like a hawk. No restaurant wants a rating other than an A; a B or a C would lose clients rapidly. Anything below C, and the restaurant would be closed until it passes inspection.
User
7 years ago
No one was "falsely accused". They were not using any kind of reviews that named a restaurant by anyone.
PRO
Anglophilia
7 years ago
I don't know where you live, but most states have health inspection requirements of at least 2 inspections a year. If there are violations, there are also follow-up inspections. Some states have inspections even more often.

The only ones who get a once a year inspection are bars places that are designated "low risk" establishments.

The date of the last inspection is found on the certificate which ALL restaurants must display in an obvious place.

NO "qualified chef" would be unaware of safe food handling practices! First of all, he must get a permit to open the restaurant; and secondly, he will initially have more frequent inspections as a new restaurant.

Quit watching "reality" TV - it is rarely "reality".
colleenoz
7 years ago
I’m not saying qualified chefs don’t know safe food handling practices. I’m saying they don’t always practice them.
User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
We are lucky if we get two per every four to six years, unless they bomb, they they have to keep going back to the same one.

https://whnt.com/category/news/restaurant-ratings/
PRO
Anglophilia
7 years ago
Any restaurant that wants to stay in business better practice safe food handling practices! Having a B or C rating or getting closed down, is not a viable business plan!
colleenoz
7 years ago
Well I totally agree, but not all food service people are good business people. And if they’re struggling they get tired and more inclined to let things slide and not do things properly, like cleaning.

Google searches help track sources of foodborne illness

colleenoz

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