Champaign-Urbana residents can finally know exactly how up-to-code their favorite local restaurants are, thanks to a recent change from the Champaign Urbana Public Health District.

In September, the department launched an online database where you can read the health inspection report of any restaurant of your choosing. 

With the amount of meals many of us students eat outside of our apartments — houses or dorms, due to time constraints, lack of groceries or cooking skills — we are glad to be able to check up on the safety standards of some of our favorite CU go-to food venues. This is especially true since restaurant complaints in the area have been on the rise. 

This change in health inspection availability came after five years of discussion from the department, and the work of news organization CU-Citizen Access, who advocated for the information to be published. Since 2011, CU-Citizen Access has been posting full inspection reports of restaurant failures on its website. 

However, now the Health District is making this information available online as well, and in great detail. This allows for more transparency and thus more accountability.

Some of the various violations indicated have to do with potentially hazardous food due to unsafe temperatures, contamination, unhygienic practices and more. 

They say ignorance is bliss and what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but in this case, we think otherwise. When it comes to the restaurants we frequently visit, the food we ingest, the utensils we use and the tables we eat on, we would most certainly like to know.

Another benefit is that not all of this content is online-only — every food establishment in Champaign-Urbana must display a sign that gives patrons information about its last inspection report. These signs also have Quick Response codes that can link smartphone users to the full inspection report. 

So if you forget to go online and check whether there are any health risks associated with your dinner plans for the night, you can still get that information when you arrive. 

What it comes down to is that dining out is a big part of campus culture. We frequently eat at many different restaurants in the Champaign-Urbana area, and many of us assume that most of the places we eat at meet health and safety standards.

But it is important for us to know when these standards are not met, so that we don’t have to walk into a food establishment with our fingers crossed hoping that our meal was prepared in appropriate conditions.

We appreciate that the Health District made health inspection information more available to us, and we sure hope our favorite venues passed the test.