Broome County restaurant inspections: How safe is your favorite place to eat?

Broome County restaurant inspection records show 15 food establishments received five or more violations in May, according to the most recent data released by New York state.

A halal restaurant in Binghamton and an Indian restaurant in Vestal had 7 non-critical violations and one critical violation in May, including not properly cooling food, not using effective measures to control entrance of insects and rodents and improperly storing utensils.

Several other restaurants were cited for not keeping food properly refrigerated and not properly sanitizing surfaces. In many cases, follow-up visits to the restaurants showed no violations.

Inspection reports are public documents, and the online database at data.pressconnects.com has the results of inspections in Binghamton and across New York. Readers can see when a facility was last inspected and get a summary of the violations inspectors found.

The database can be searched by county, or type in a name or address to find records for a specific restaurant.

Explore: NY statewide database of restaurant inspections

Each report is a snapshot in time, reflecting observations from a single day when inspectors were in the restaurant.

Keep in mind the world of restaurant inspections is fluid. Your favorite eatery might have received a handful of violations and then quickly cleaned up and passed the next inspection with none. A clean slate in one report also doesn't mean problems can't arise later.

Many problems can often be traced to food service employees who either ignore standard operating procedures or show up ill and pass on food-borne illnesses.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Binghamton restaurant inspections: How safe is your favorite place?