Bars across NC to get health inspections and sanitation scores, like restaurants

A new law will require many bars across North Carolina to be subject to health inspections like restaurants are.

Now, weeks after the new requirements took effect with little warning, the state is giving bars more time to comply.

According to the state’s health and human services department, bars that will face new requirements are those that prepare and serve food. Specifically, bars that sell food that requires temperature control for safety, designated as TCS food, must obtain a permit from local health departments.

These bars will be subject to health inspections, which are often associated with the sanitation scores posted in venues for the public to see.

Those that sell non-TCS food, such as nuts, or bars that only use TCS food as a garnish, do not require a permit, according to Summer Tonizzo, a DHHS spokesperson.

The regulations are meant to protect the public from foodborne illness, Tonizzo wrote in an email to The News & Observer.

For one North Carolina bar owner, these changes will be jarring, as businesses will need to lay down money and make changes quickly in their establishments to meet new permit requirements, he said.

Private bars, clubs and NC’s alcohol sale rules

These bar changes were passed into law two months ago inside a 24–page health care bill. Toward the bottom of this bill, new language amending the definition of bars for sanitation purposes was added.

Under North Carolina law, businesses must hold an Alcoholic Beverage Control permit to serve alcohol in their venue. Permits are granted to restaurants, hotels, breweries and more. The type of permit granted depends on the establishment meeting certain requirements.

Previously, under a vestige of the 1930s post-Prohibition era, the state did not have a “bar” definition. Instead, many businesses selling primarily liquor were classified as “private clubs.”

In 2020, the definition of private clubs was redefined to mean an establishment that qualifies as tax-exempt under federal law and has been in operation for a minimum of 12 months prior to application for an ABC permit.

The 2020 bill also created a new definition for “private bar,” meaning many venues that were previously private clubs shifted their permits to become private bars. Both classifications required the businesses to keep a membership list and charge a membership fee, which could be as little as $1. Both business types were exempted from regulation as a food and lodging establishment.

But, under an expansive bill passed into law last year, a new “bar” category was created, which allowed bars that make most of their revenue from the sale of alcohol to no longer be subject to these membership requirements.

These bars, which can sell food as long as its not their main revenue stream, are also not subject to food inspections and North Carolina county health inspectors do not issue sanitation scores for them.

According to Tonizzo, the removal of the “private bar” distinction last year, which “grouped bars into a singular category,” is a big reason DHHS and others worked on the new regulations in this year’s bill, labeled House Bill 125.

The bar requirements were not in either a House or Senate version of the bill, but appeared in a negotiated final version that became public just before the bill passed in September with little dissent.

“The change in HB125 will provide affected bars the benefit of standards that better protect the public from foodborne illness. Bars that are considered private clubs,” are exempt, wrote Tonizzo.

Asked by The News & Observer if DHHS had determined if it would be feasible to inspect and regulate more bars, Tonizzo wrote that its Division of Public Health had worked with the ABC Commission to provide a list of facilities to local health departments and did “not anticipate issues with inspection capacity and have not heard of any concerns from local health departments.”

Lynn Minges, president of the North Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association, said many bars will be affected, including members of her group.

For many bars, it’s “probably a bit of a hardship because they’ve got to go back and comply. They’ve got to change some of their structures, the infrastructure of their properties so that they can comply,” Minges said.

Still, Minges said she understands the safety rationale, especially with bars shifting away from the “private” designation.

Guidance shared with bars

Randy Wilson, a Wake County bar and restaurant owner, said he received a letter from the county’s Environmental Health & Safety Division on Nov. 3, informing him of the new permitting requirement.

“If you’re not in the restaurant business, you think, well, what’s the deal with that? Who cares? It seems like you would like the health department to come in there and overlook your food operations. You don’t,” Wilson said.

“It’s not the cleanliness. Everybody wants to be clean. Everybody wants to serve good food,” he said. But “they may require that you have an extra seat, that you wash your hands here and you wash food over here … or maybe you need another freezer. And this starts adding up to thousands of dollars,” he said.

Wilson said he owns a bar in Raleigh and restaurant outside of the city. The requirements to run a restaurant are stringent, he said.

And while he has capital for repairs and changes for his bar, he believes many small bar businesses will struggle to meet requirements and may shut down.

The law will “have some really bad unintended consequences of loss of tax revenue, loss of jobs, and loss of places to be able to go and sit and have a drink and have something to eat,” he said.

Health inspections are conducted between one and four times per year by a state-registered environmental health specialist who checks, among other things, for proper sanitation, personal hygiene and proper food storage in a venue.

Inspectors then issue sanitation scores based on a points system, which are posted at the venue for the public to see. Any violations found must be corrected by owners.

Attached to the letter Wilson received and shared with The N&O was guidance from DHHS, which specified that enforcement was set to begin Jan. 1, 2024. Wilson said more time would be needed and that it would be impossible for many to make needed changes in two months.

Following an inquiry on any help that was going to be provided to businesses, especially considering the tight deadline, Tonizzo said that updated guidance was distributed to local health departments the week of Nov. 6, which extends the compliance deadline to March 27.

The guidance shared with local health departments (and shared by Tonizzo with The N&O) says that the extension would help “manage the new influx of facilities and provide time for newly affected establishments to submit applications and make any required changes as part of the permitting process.”

Tonizzo wrote that during that time DHHS would work with bars and local health departments to answer questions and assist with compliance.