NEW YORK (AP) – Concerned diners can now search the health department’s Web site to find which restaurants have the worst health violations.

Restaurants’ inspection records were online before, but not with the advanced search-and-sort functions available now on an enhanced site launched Wednesday, the department said.

“New Yorkers, obviously, love food and they love all information about food that they can get, and this is providing more information to people,” health department Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said.

Now online searches can find the cleanest and dirtiest restaurants in a neighborhood or borough.

Each of the city’s 24,000 restaurants is inspected at least once a year, and one in five eateries fails the test, Frieden said. The establishment then has a few weeks to correct the violations before a new inspection, after which it faces immediate closure by the health department.

The department shuts about 500 restaurants each year for substandard conditions.

Infractions include mice and roach infestations, failure to keep hot and cold foods at the right temperatures, inadequate facilities for workers to wash their hands after using the bathroom, grimy cutting boards and dirty wiping cloths.

Each violation carries a number of points, and anything higher than 28 flunks. The offenders aren’t always obvious – some of the city’s most popular restaurants have racked up failing scores.

A famed Brooklyn steakhouse had a score of 58 for food temperature violations, poor personal hygiene for food handlers and mice. One high-end sushi restaurant nearly failed for not properly cleaning food contact surfaces and not protecting food from potential contamination.

Those with the cleanest bills of health range from a fast-food restaurant in the Bronx to a Brazilian steakhouse in Manhattan.

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On the Net:

Health department restaurant inspections: http://www.nyc.gov/health/restaurants

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