Restaurants in NYC to start posting a letter-grade placard for cleanliness today

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/nyregion/28inspect.html

July 27, 2010
Restaurants Grading Begins in New York
By GLENN COLLINS

By the end of Wednesday, several restaurant windows in New York are quite likely to display a new attraction alongside the usual menus and reviews: a brilliantly colored placard bearing a letter grade. But much less visible is the months-long effort by city health officials to prepare for this day — the debut of their controversial new system to rate the cleanliness of the city’s more than 24,000 restaurants with an A, B or C.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has added 23 inspectors to its 157 to conduct annual visits that are expected to rise by more than one-third, to 85,000 from 60,000. The department’s printing presses have produced 28,000 letter-grade placards and enough new procedural guides for every food establishment in the city...

“This is the biggest change we’ve implemented in many years,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, commissioner of the health department, which has budgeted $3.2 million for the effort. Public pressure exerted by the letter grades, Dr. Farley said, will “force restaurants to be diligent about good food-safety practices.”

The new ratings will arrive piecemeal. During inspections on Wednesday, only the 8-by-10-inch placards designating an A grade are expected to be posted, since restaurants that receive a lower grade will automatically be inspected again at a later date. The first B’s and C’s may not be posted until late August, and rating placards will not reach all restaurants until fall 2011. The new inspection rules require restaurateurs to post the placards prominently. Failure to do so will be punishable by a $1,000 fine, with additional penalties for counterfeiting...

Just how far will New Yorker's have to travel now to eat if their favorite fare is chitlins?

It is very helpful!

Consumer confidence is boosted, and the restaurants have extra incentive to keep things clean and orderly. We like it.

If the Health Department gives you a C, you have only a short time to clean up or be shut down.

But Sarvjit Singh, owner of the Sohna Punjab restaurant in Bellerose, said he had no worries about maintaining a clean restaurant. “I tell my chef he should be cooking as if he were eating that food,” he said.

I thought posting the health rating was universal. Well, good to see NYC getting with the times.

:hi:

Hope you do more typing, and less ttwiddling, lol!

I'm not quite sure why it seems to have been discontinued, but I guess it's back.

It's a percentage system, and almost everywhere boasts above 90%. Some places have over 100%, because you get bonus points for taking various courses the state offers.

Most of the low-scoring places are ethnic restaurants and other mom and pop outfits.