September is "Food Safety Education Month."

How safe is your favorite restaurant? It's a question on everybody's mind.

This after one death and more than 200 people falling ill to E. Coli after eating at a restaurant in Locust Grove.

In order for anyone to handle food at the restaurant, they've got to have a food handler's permit; and that requires a two-hour course learning the basics about food safety.

On top of that, the Health Department conducts 11,000 inspections a year at  about 3,500 restaurants.

Health Inspector Debrena Hilton walks into the kitchen of "5 and Diner". She's nice, but she's also watching.

"There's a great variety of different things I'm looking for during my investigation." She starts by checking temperatures. "We want to be sure that the hamburger is getting cooked all the way through, it should be cooked to an internal temperature of 155 degrees."

Then it's off to the fridge, making sure it's frigid enough.

"The zone in between allows bacteria to grow rapidly and in large numbers when they mutliply, it can make people sick like E. Coli? Exactly."

Outside, she notices some thawing chicken. Hilton says, "At this point they need to start working with it."

"I'm also looking for evidence of mice or roaches."

Then it's time to check employee habits. "You could you wash your hands for me again, yes, thank you for taking off your gloves and throwing those away, thank you."

Managers know she's tough but are thankful for it. "You don't want to have someone get sick and then tell ten other people they got sick at your restaurant that's not good publicity."

In the end, it's all to ensure your safety. "Every person has an important role to play, and if they don't do their job correctly, it could cause something like this to happen."

There weren't any violations at the "5 and Diner".

The Health Department says the most common mistake they see: storing foods at the wrong termperature.

But they say the hardest mistakes to overcome are employee habits. Some employees just don't want to listen when it comes to sanitation. That's why food handler classes are required.

To see the results of health inspections at your favorite restaurants just go to http://www.tulsa-health.org/food-safety/restaurant-inspections