Travis Jacobsen woke Tuesday shocked to see a report listing his business, which was set to offer food for the first time that day, in violation of Kansas health code laws.

Along with his father, Jacobsen owns Lawrence’s only arcade, Epic Fun, 711 W. 23rd St., and Tuesday is the business’ first day offering food to the public.

Jacobsen’s shock came because he knew his arcade had been given a clean bill of health from the inspector who came by more than a week before.

Indeed, Autumn Schuck, inspection manager with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, said Jacobsen’s business passed its Jan. 6 inspection with flying colors. Instead, the report listing the business as out of compliance with codes was due to an error on the department’s website.

Schuck could not say specifically when the website began “glitching,” but said it did happen sometime in the past year.

In fact, it’s not uncommon for the department’s website to suffer from various glitches, Schuck said.

Here’s how it works — or doesn’t work, as the case may be:

On the department’s website agriculture.ks.gov all the establishments inspected and their results are listed and can be searched by county, city or date.

In the website’s search function, establishments are listed with their address, the date of their most recent inspection, whether they’re currently in compliance with health codes and how many violations were found in their last inspection.

Often — but not always — the inspection reports themselves can be opened from the search.

The reports are automatically filed online from the laptops that inspectors carry with them in the field, Schuck said.

Within the reports inspectors are allowed space for comments. Those comments are not always necessarily negative.

The glitch comes in, Schuck says, by registering comments in the reports as listed violations.

Comments in Jacobsen’s report, remarking on the working order of his freezer, registered as a violation and erroneously listed Epic Fun in violation of health codes, Schuck said.

In fact, Jacobsen’s arcade is fully in compliance and has no health code violations on its record.

The glitch can potentially affect each establishment inspected by the department, Schuck said, though she hasn’t received any other calls regarding the issue from other businesses listed online.

And while the department is requesting the vendor in charge of the website to fix the problem, Schuck said there is a long list of problems yet to be fixed and it is unclear when the glitch will be resolved.

In the meantime it’s better to reserve judgement than to rush to conclusions, Schuck said. If someone is unclear about a restaurant’s record, he or she can typically pull up the full reports and see what violations, if any, are present.

Now, with a little clarification on his most recent inspection, Jacobsen is back to business. In fact, he said he’ll be serving free chicken wings and pizza from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, while supplies last, of course.

I report on crime and courts for the Journal-World. I can be reached by email at cswanson@ljworld.com, by phone at (785) 832-7284 or on Twitter @Conrad_Swanson.