April 16, 2024

For Immediate Release

Most people bring an appetite to a restaurant. Catalina Ibarra brings a thermometer.

Ibarra works as an Environmental Health Specialist II. Her job is to enforce the California Retail Food Code, all 56,100 or so words of it.

Armed with probes, flashlights and wipes, Ibarra inspects restaurants and other food-serving operations in San Mateo County. She plunges needle-like thermometers into steaks, salads and soups, peers under sinks for signs of unwelcome visitors and grills chefs on food-safety procedures.

“You have to keep your head on a swivel,” Ibarra said as she entered a kitchen during a recent inspection.

She is on the front (sanitized) line of protecting diners from food-borne illnesses. These include maladies triggered by bacteria or parasites with nasty names like  Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter and Toxoplasmosis.

“Everything starts with the hand wash,” she said. “My main focus is on what can get someone sick immediately.”

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