No matter whether restaurants are Thai, Mexican, Chinese or French, they all have a couple of things in common: They must have permits and they have to pass health inspections conducted primarily in English.

And, under a new Georgia law that went into effect in December, every restaurant also must have a certified food-safety manager. That can be the owner or an employee, but he or she must be able to communicate with inspectors, said Vernon Goins, a spokesman and former food inspector for the Gwinnett County Health Department's Environmental Health Section.

LEITA COWART/Special (ENLARGE)

Corey Millwood (left), a Gwinnett County quality assessment and evaluation coordinator, talks with Chittree Bumrungsapskul, owner and manager of Taste of Thai in Norcross, while conducting an inspection.

"You can't open a restaurant without someone who is able to communicate," he said. "A person who wants a permit must be able to understand the laws."

When it comes to complying with regulations, the onus is on the business, he said.

"Our prime directive is the safety of the public," Goins said. "The operators and preparers of food must understand the health codes and employ them."

Christopher Hutcheson, a Cobb County environmental health manager, also conducts restaurant inspections. When he faces language barriers with the owners, he sometimes finds himself talking with the owners' children.

Because they are in school and immersed in English there, children can help translate for their parents.

"It's awkward, especially when the permit might be threatened," he said. "It's hard to tell [the children] Mom and Dad might be in trouble."

Hutcheson also tries writing down directions for how to make improvements that will allow a restaurant to meet code. He said he will demonstrate techniques — how to store food or clean a surface, for example — to enable the owners to follow required practices.

When going over the report, "we don't sit in the dining room," he said. "We go into the kitchen — you get better results."

He also pointed out that some restaurants face an additional language barrier. The menu and owners may be Asian, for example, but many workers in the kitchen are Hispanic.

But both management and staff have to follow regulations written in English.

"It's a double language barrier: Hispanics, Asians and me," Hutcheson said. "How do you label the food?" For example, in English? Spanish? Vietnamese?

Gwinnett, Cobb and most metro counties offer classes for people who are considering opening restaurants or for those already in the business.

In Gwinnett, the monthly classes — in English — cover rules and regulations for the handling and preparing of food, food storage, and use of utensils and containers. However, the tests for certification are offered in several languages, including Spanish, German, Korean and Arabic.

Cobb also teaches ServSafe, a national food-safety course, and accepts certification from other courses taught at the county Extension Service, at Chattahoochee Tech, and by food-service organizations and private individuals, some of whom teach in languages other than English.

Most classes are available in one- or two-day formats, and there is a fee of about $150 per person.

The state restaurant-inspection form is in English, and it reads like most other government forms.

Under the "utensils, equipment and vending" category, for example, one item checked by inspectors reads, "Food and nonfood contact surfaces cleanable, properly designed, constructed and used."

Even the classes cover complicated topics, Hutcheson said. "Microbiology — that's difficult for anybody," he said.

The process to become a state-required food service manager can take time, Hutcheson said, but "they are expected to have the knowledge now."

In addition to the challenge of teaching people from different ethnic backgrounds, Hutcheson noted that many people have educational backgrounds that would not even be the equivalent of a high school education.

Gwinnett tries to make it easier for restaurant owners and managers who don't speak English fluently.

"We do make attempts to have as much information and training as possible for businesses and people with English as a second language," Goins said.

The department has several staff members who can translate Spanish, as well as connections to a language line that provides translation services for many other languages.

"If there's a need for us to communicate in another language, we can do it," said Goins, who was an inspector for 18 years before becoming a public relations information coordinator six years ago.

While different ethnic restaurants offer a variety of tastes from around the world, there are no exceptions to health and safety rules for different types of restaurants, such as sushi bars or taco stands. "We apply the codes to everyone," Goins said.

Hutcheson pointed out a difficulty for sushi restaurants.

Although experienced sushi preparers told him they need to feel the food to make sushi properly, the health code requires preparers to use gloves.

"There's to be no bare-hand contact with the food," he said.

The job of monitoring has grown as more ethnic restaurants open in metro Atlanta.

"That's a good thing," Goins said. "It's fun to try them."

Hutcheson pointed to the growing number of Hispanic restaurants in Smyrna, especially those that cater to Hispanic customers.

In Gwinnett, Goins said, there has been recent growth in the number of French, Greek and

European-style restaurants. Caribbean menus, Latin American cuisine other than Mexican, and Ecuadorian and Peruvian options also have been increasing.

"Safety cannot be diverse," he said. "It's the same culture for every restaurant."