Error showed ABQ restaurants unhealthy

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department says a computer software miscalculation led to 13 restaurants in the city being given a red health inspection sticker.

"It's really clean, it's really healthy in here," says Fernando Sanchez, manager of Salsita's Express in northeast Albuquerque. "I don't know what's wrong. I have 3 things not right, but we fix them quickly."

Sanchez says business has been dropping off ever since the city mistakenly gave a red health inspection to the restaurant.

"Most businesses as soon as they were red tagged, they called to get a re--inspection," says Mary Lou Leonard, Director of the city's Environmental Health Department. "They were either inspected the same day or the very next day."

Salsita's Express and 12 other restaurants have since had their green status returned.

The city blames the error on a new software program that exaggerated the points for violations the restaurants received during inspections this year.

"At no time was the public ever at risk as a matter of fact, it was an error that basically was too conservative," says Leonard.

Still, some places like Salsita's Express said they are still affected by the bad impression the red sticker left with patrons.

"To all of the business owners, they have my sincere apology," adds Leonard. "My staff and I never looked to harm them in any way, we consider them partners."

The restaurant safety inspections are carried out according to the Federal Food and Drug Administrations' food code which the city adopted back in 2010. These recent errors only showed up on inspections between January and March of this year.

The restaurants which have been returned to satisfactory "green" approved status are: