Will you still eat at your favorite restaurant if it gets a C from the Department of Health?

Starting in July 2010, New York City is requiring “food service establishments” to post letter grades that correspond to their sanitary inspection scores. This report card must be posted at the entrance to the restaurant for all to see.

Los Angeles started a similar system in the 1990’s. Initially, only 40% of restaurants received an A. But now 80% of restaurants are receiving high grades.

Andrew Reggio, the director of operations of the New York Restaurant Association, thinks this will have a negative impact on restaurants and may cause closures. He cites differences between the Los Angeles system and the one in NYC, making it easier to fail in NYC. Here’s what he told Blackbook.com:

The LA system is based on 100 points and is traditional in the sense that 90% = A, 80% = B, 70% = C. In NYC there are more than 1000 points a restaurant can receive from violations. In NYC, 0-13 points = A, 14-27 points = B and 28+ = C (basically a failing grade). It will be substantially easier to fail in NYC.  Percentage wise, a restaurant would need to score between 98.7 – 100% to receive an A grade, 97.3 – 98.6% to receive a B and a 97.2% or less to receive a C.  Furthermore, in NYC there are more than 40 violations that carry between 10-28 points.  Compared to LA where no violation carries more than 6 points.”

The following is a Q&A from the NYC Health Department, which summarizes the grading program.

Why is the Health Department issuing letter grades to restaurants?
The Health Department is issuing restaurant letter grades to help consumers make informed choices
about where to eat out. Consumer awareness creates a powerful new incentive for restaurants to
maintain the highest food safety standards.

Which establishments are graded?
Some food service establishments that require Health Department permits will receive and post letter
grades that correspond to their sanitary inspection scores. These establishments include most
restaurants, coffee shops, bars, nightclubs, cafeterias, retail bakeries, and fixed-site food stands. This
document uses the term “restaurants” to refer to all these establishments.
Which establishments are not graded?
Letter grades are not being issued to mobile food vending units, temporary food service
establishments, food service establishments operated by primary or secondary schools, hospitaloperated
cafeterias, correctional facilities, charitable organizations (including soup kitchens or other
prepared food distribution programs), or food service establishments operated by not-for-profit
membership organizations, which serve food only to their members.
What are the grades, and what do they mean?
Grades reflect how well a restaurant complies with the food safety requirements of the New York
City Health Code and the State Sanitary Code. When inspectors examine a restaurant’s sanitary
conditions and practices, they assign numerical points for different violations of the Health Code.
Different violations carry different numbers of points, depending on their nature and severity. The
total number of violation points provides a measure of the restaurant’s general condition. Under the
new system, the Health Department will use the scores from certain inspections to generate letter
grades that are easier to interpret. Here are the grades:
• Grade A. 0 to 13 points for sanitary violations.
• Grade B. 14 to 27 points for sanitary violations.
• Grade C. 28 or more points for sanitary violations.
• Grade Pending. A restaurant’s B or C grade is not final until the restaurant has had the
opportunity to go before the Health Department’s Administrative Tribunal to contest the
violations cited against it. Until then, the restaurant has the option to post either the
preliminary grade or a card that says “Grade Pending.” Once the grade is final, the restaurant
must immediately post the letter grade card and take down the Grade Pending card.
How should consumers interpret grades of B or C?
In the first year or so of grading, we expect that most restaurants will earn a B grade. Restaurants
with B or C grades should improve their overall food safety practices, but the Health Department
immediately closes restaurants with conditions that may be hazardous to public health.
Where can I search for restaurants or learn more about a restaurant’s inspection history?
Visit nyc.gov/health/restaurants to see inspection details and to search for restaurants by grade,
neighborhood, cuisine and more.
Will all restaurants have a grade when letter grading begins in July 2010?
No. It will take a little over a year to grade all of the city’s existing restaurants. New restaurants are
not graded until they have been open for a few weeks.
How did the Health Department respond to comments from the restaurant industry and
consumers when designing the grading initiative?
Hundreds of New Yorkers offered comments while the grading initiative was being developed. The
general public was overwhelmingly supportive, but some restaurant operators opposed the grading
system. Industry representatives stressed the need to ensure that grades would be assigned fairly, that
restaurants would have opportunities to improve their grades, and that grades would reflect only
those conditions relevant to food safety. The Health Department addressed these concerns by
designing a program that gives restaurants an automatic second chance to improve their scores after
an initial inspection, as well as an opportunity for outside review of the inspection results. The
agency also updated the inspection violation list so that restaurants are graded only for violations that
affect food safety. These changes are intended to make the system as fair as possible for restaurant
operators while protecting restaurant customers.
Has the inspection process changed with grading?
No, the Health Department has not changed the way it conducts inspections. The inspector still
examines the establishment’s sanitary conditions and then gives the operator a printed report listing
the violations observed, the points for each violation, and the total number of points.
Have there been any changes made to the violations?
Yes, the Health Department has made some changes. The updated violation list defines the violations
that letter grades are based on, and it specifies the number of points assigned to each violation
depending on the extent or severity of the condition cited. A guide to “condition levels” describes the
severity of each violation and provides examples. A description of the changes made to the checklist
and condition levels is set out in the final rule. Documents are available at nyc.gov/health or by
calling 311.