PROVIDENCE — The dining public apparently has a huge appetite for information about food safety in Rhode Island’s restaurants. Tens of thousands of people have viewed health inspection reports for restaurants, delis, convenience stores and other places food is served since the reports first became available online last Tuesday, said Ernest M. Julian, chief of the Office of Food Protection at the Rhode Island Department of Health.

“We had one person call us who said they searched for 100 places online,” Julian said. “People are checking all the places they eat.”

The Health Department has posted a database of some 4,000 food service inspection reports, covering about half the food establishments in the state, dating back to January. The reports list health violations with short explanations.

The inspection reports are available at www.health.ri.gov/environment/food/inspections.php.

After being publicized by local media, the site attracted so much Web traffic on Thursday that an Internet traffic jam developed that temporarily slowed the site. “At one point, for two hours [Thursday] after lunch, we were getting 224 hits a minute,” Julian said. “It was so successful, it surpassed expectations. The people we have heard from have been extremely positive about getting the information.”

The information in the inspections reports was always public and available for review, but never before online and in an easily searchable format. “It’s obvious the public wants this information, based on the number of views.”

The Health Department is also encouraging restaurants to voluntarily improve their food safety practices beyond the minimum standards, to qualify for a special designation, the Dine Safer Award, certified by a nonprofit organization. The Health Department will list Dine Safer-qualified restaurants on its Web page, and those establishments will be able to use the Dine Safer logo in their advertising.

“The whole concept here is trying to significantly raise the bar,” Julian said. “We expect places to fix problems faster because, obviously, they don’t want a bad inspection report … easily visible to the public. More importantly, it will drive problem places to fix problems before we get there. They won’t want to look bad on the Web, and they’ll put in place procedures so they’re good all the time.”

The Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association did not want the reports posted, out of concern that patrons might not understand the jargon, and might read too much into a minor infraction.

State Sen. Josh Miller, proprietor of downtown Providence restaurants Local 121 and Trinity Brewhouse, said, “Public access to information is never a bad thing. The only problem is that some of it can be technical and can be misinterpreted.”

Julian said he expects a mixed response from the industry.

“If you have an excellent place, you’re probably not worried about it,” he said. “If you have a bad place, then I think there would be concern, and appropriately so. From our prospective, we look at it as the public has a right to know what we’re finding. We want the industry to look good. We’re encouraging the industry to sign up for the awards program. We’re working with the hospitality association to sponsor with them more training for managers and workers, providing them with self-inspection forms, providing them with information. We’ll assist in providing them the tools to improve their operations.”

marsenau@projo.com