DECATUR- From washing hands, to doing the dishes, employees at local restaurants have to follow the state health code.

"When an inspector comes around they're going to check the code and they're going to see that you're following everything in the code," said food safety expert Sue Summerville.

WAND-TV used the Freedom of Information Act to get inspection reports for the lowest scoring restaurants in Macon County for the past two years to find out which ones had the most violations.

At Applebee's in Forsyth inspectors found dirty plates and foods at unsafe temperatures

and they confirmed a complaint of sharp metal objects found in food.  The inspector concluded the metal pieces came from using a damaged food processor.  Records show they've corrected those violations.

At the Night Owl in Macon, inspectors found Raid in the spice rack, moldy food, and shut it down in November of 2010 for critical violations and pests. 

Owner Greg Maples says they've corrected these violations and their most recent score was an 85 out of 100.

At the South Shores Dairy Queen, inspectors found contaminated food, dirty premises and toxic items stored with food items.

"There were a couple violations that we got those fixed immediately, which was easy," franchise owner Wendell Bradley said. 

In September, the health department confirmed a complaint of cockroaches.

"We called our pest control company and they're very good about coming out immediately."

Bradley says they've fixed all their violations.

" serve thousands of people every day and the food is very safe."

Summerville says an extra set of eyes...makes restaurants stay on track.

"I think if they're correcting, they were happy to have the inspectors point it out to them."  But she says wherever people eat out, they need to think about sanitation. 

"Be cautious where you're going and where you're eating."

As of now, we still have not received comments from Applebee's.  Once we hear from them, we will report their response.

Summerville says one of the key reasons for violations is a lack of training.

States like California are developing mandatory food safety training for all restaurant employees... She says if that existed in Illinois it could make dining out much safer.           

If you want to check out a restaurant's rating from the health department, you can see what each local restaurant scored from one to 100 on their last inspection.  We've added that link to our website under sitewatch.