”The cleaner the restaurant, where there aren’t a lot of issues, that’s when the small violations like unwrapped straws come out,” says Kanev. “There’s been so many times I’ve seen a place marked down for things that other inspectors didn’t care about. It’s always when they haven’t found any violations in the kitchen or elsewhere. It’s like they can’t give us nothing and are just looking for something to mark off.”

The Department of Health denies these allegations. In an email to Eater, DOH officials noted that inspectors adhere strictly to what’s in the health code, and added that the inspections are ultimately for the betterment of the establishments themselves.

From my experience with auditors (frequent, though not in food service), I am disinclined to believe the DOH position. Auditors have to find something. It looks bad to their superiors if they don’t, and the gray areas are exactly where inconsequential but still articulable findings can be submitted. Essentially, if everything else is perfect, you should expect a few of the eye-rolling findings like “stir straws were unwrapped,” because otherwise the auditor looks like they weren’t actually trying. The guidance, both internal and from the external consultants we hire to assist with audits, boils down to, “yes, it may be trivial, but just fix it, show that you fixed it, and move on.”

Of course, working for a major multi-national corporation, this compliance effort is easily absorbed, whereas a corner deli might have issues. A disparity frequently discussed on OL, and indeed in that very Eater article.