Is it mildly ironic that diners in Silicon Valley, the IT creative center for the world, are only now being offer data about restaurant inspections?

Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved a motion requiring Department of Environmental Health to transcribe all health inspectors’ notes on its website, so consumers can view specific violations and better understand reports.

The motion also requires the department evaluate potential scoring and placarding options which the health department will present to the board later this year.

It comes after an NBC Bay Area investigation exposed Santa Clara County’s restaurant inspection system was not holding restaurants accountable to the public.

Halfway across the country, St Peters, Missouri is considering adopting the latest Food and Drug Administration food code, in part to see how a restaurant scored on recent health inspections.

The new guidelines would require the health inspection sheets to be posted for all to see. Now, the food code only requires the restaurants to make inspection sheets available upon request, said Cheryl Hanks-Sinecki, director of Health and Recycling Services for St. Peters.

The city is now operating under state guidelines that were last issued in 1999. The FDA guidelines were last revised in 2009, but have received additional tweaks each year, Hanks-Sinecki said.

In addition, the city is considering posting the full reports online, instead of just posting the score. St. Louis County posts restaurant inspections online in a searchable database. St. Charles County posted the full reports online for a 6 month period in 2011, but no longer does so. 

St. Charles County last year started giving restaurants a sticker with a QR code, which people with smart phones can scan that will take them to the restaurant’s most recent food inspection score.

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