[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJm4DykNPOg 400 330]

If only Marvin Zindler had lived to see this!

Houston’s longtime consumer reporter is no longer around to deliver his stirring “Slime in the Ice Machine!” reports on TV, but Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services is now allowing online access to its database of inspection reports for retail food establishments.

Though it’s not nearly as user-friendly as, say, being able to see letter grades in restaurant front windows, the ability to search through reports online is a big step forward. And hey, now that they’re available, maybe someone can turn distributing inspection report cards to county restaurants into a business.

If you’re on the prowl for ice-machine violations in the new database, maybe to put into your own Zindler-style restaurant-inspection broadcasts on YouTube, look for “Slime on soda nozzles, soda gun & holster, ice machine, yogurt machines” under inspection item 25, “Food Contact Surfaces of Equipment and Utensils Cleaned, Sanitized/Good Repair.”

• Online Food Inspections [HCPHES]
• HCPHES Announces Two Food Establishment Initiatives [HCPHES]
• County restaurant inspection reports now online [KHOU]
• Marvin Zindler’s last report [YouTube]
• Post the scores [Barfblog]
• CleanScores tells you if your favorite restaurant is clean [VentureBeat]
• CleanScores (LA and SF only)
• Environmental Public Health Division Inspection Information [HCPHES]