City fails restaurant inspection review

'GROSS' NEGLIGENCE: FOOD COPS FAIL TO CHECK EATERIES
By REUVEN BLAU, NY Post

That might actually be a fly in your soup.

Thousands of the Big Apple's 25,500 eateries haven't been checked by city food inspectors in more than 18 months, despite Health Department guidelines calling for yearly inspections, The Post has learned.

The agency acknowledged that about 20 percent of the city's eateries - as many as 5,000 food joints - have gone unchecked since July 2007.

One Brooklyn burger joint hasn't seen an inspector since June 2007. "We are all on pins and needles," its owner said.

The city's 115 inspectors are now scrambling and working overtime in an attempt to visit 100 percent of the city's eateries by next June, the end of fiscal year 2009.

As inspections have slowed down, the number of filthy restaurants shuttered by the city's food cops has plummeted.

The city closed down 1,507 eateries in 2007 and 1,057 in 2008. Between July and November this year, 667 restaurants have been shut down.

Meanwhile, 14,049 inspections have been conducted so far this fiscal year, down from the 38,000 in 2008 and 39,000 in 2007.