The ABCs of Restaurant Safety Ratings
Food should, at minimum, fill us up and help sustain our life. We could debate the various pros and cons of this or that diet, but one thing everyone can agree on is that our food shouldn’t make us sick, and it definitely shouldn’t kill us.
When we’re cooking in our own homes, we are directly responsible for everything we make and everything we put in our bodies. So when that turpentine glaze doesn’t quite thrill our dinner guests, we only have ourselves to blame.
But with over half of the American food dollar being spent on food from restaurants (or otherwise prepared outside of the home), we put our health and safety in the hands of others. While it’s in the restaurants’ best interests to keep us alive to keep us as customers, sometimes more motivation is needed. The kind of motivation that comes in the form of publicly posted test results. That’s how we get accountability.
Making the Grade
Not every city (or country) enforces the same standards of health and food safety in their restaurants, but for this blog post, that’s okay. We’re just going to pretend the whole world is either New York City of Los Angeles.
Now, full disclosure: the image at the top lists letter grades and numbers associated with them. I don’t know where those numbers come from, because everything I read indicated that a lower score was better, as higher scores reflected violations and the severity of those violations.
But in case you haven’t figured it out from school, from pop culture, or from seeing these signs in restaurant windows, an A (0-13 pts) is the best, B (14-27 pts) is okay, and a C (28 or more pts) needs to fix its problems if it wants to continue serving customers. And here’s how it happens (at least in NYC).
Every restaurant is subject to a yearly inspection. If they have fewer than 13 points after said inspection, they get an A right then and there, and it gets posted. If a restaurant gets a B or a C, the results are not posted and they are given the chance to correct the violations before another random inspection.
In some cases, violations can be remedied before an inspection is even complete. In other cases, violations may indicate such immediate public danger that the restaurant is closed.
After the second inspection, a result is final and a restaurant is given both their letter grade and a Grade Pending sign, either of which they may display while contesting the results.
The Nasty
So what does it take to fail? What counts as a violation? For the most part, it’s all things you would assume.
Proper temperatures must be maintained for hot foods and cold foods, and food must not be heated or cooled too slowly.
Cleaniness of utensils, storage, cooking surfaces, hard surfaces, dishrags, bathrooms, and employees are all subject to review.
Pests are to be kept to a minimum, including rats, mice, cockroaches, and flies.
And then some things that you might not think of, unless you know to think of them, like keeping tags of the shellfish you’ve purchased for 90 days. No live animals (other than fish in tanks and service animals) in prep areas. Chemicals kept away from food. No noxious fumes or sewage leaks. Proper ventilation.
Bottom Lines
Really, it all makes sense. And it’s important to recognize that these grades do help. When the restaurants know they are being inspected, they hold themselves to a higher standard, which is better for the customer. A happy, healthy customer is good for the business.
Businesses care about their bottom lines. Training staff on food safety, taking time for self-evaluations- that costs time and money. But it’s worth it if they win loyal customers. That’s the bottom line for them.
For you? It’s not hard for a restaurant to be graded A, and most are. But you’ll likely be just fine dining at a B. It may have been a minor misstep that caught them that time, so especially if it’s someplace that has already earned your trust (or if it has killer Yelp reviews), by all means, let them feed you.
