Making the grade

McNelly Tores writes in today’s that consumers in Florida are often confused by the complicated restaurant inspection information they are provided. Anita Goodlerner, an 81 year-old resident of Boca Raton was cited as saying that she goes online and downloads a restaurant’s latest health report prior to eating out.  Goodlerner also suggests that she would prefer either a letter or numerical grade to be posted in the window of the restaurant, suggesting that this point-of-sale sign "would force them [restaurants] to clean up their act"

Maybe.  But who really knows? There is research out there that suggests inspection reports aren’t even an indicator of whether a restaurant is likely to have an outbreak, and that’s what this system is all about to me — avoiding places that are likely to make me or my fellow diners sick.  Inspections are necessary, but occur for such a short amount of the operating hours of a restaurant that it would be hard for me to make a dining decision based on the grade.  A place that has a low grade is somewhere I would probably avoid, but the places with high grades are the ones I’m worried about — what happens when the inspector isn’t there.

With the system that currently exists in most of North America, I really want to know about the history of inspections at a particular site: what things that go right or wrong and if there is a trend.  But that’s just me.  As much as I like the posting of restaurant grades as a tool to open a dialogue with patrons they don’t go far enough to provide information to the really interested consumer.

Check out our op-ed for more information.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.