In the on-going saga that is restaurant inspection disclosure, this time in Orange County, California, a grand jury report has caused a reevaluation of the process among public health officials.

Restaurants in Orange County currently use a food inspection notification system that is visibly vague and, at a glance, does not inform the public about inspection status, as stated in the report.

The report calls for a pronounced placard in the windows of these food facilities that is “graphically enhanced” and leaves no room for misinterpretation.

One of the alternative approaches would be a color-coded system, which designates a green, yellow or red placard, similar to traffic lights, indicating their level of compliance.

The counties of Sacramento, Alameda and Merced currently use this color notification method.

The color-coded system would be more effective than the one currently in use, said 
Christopher Waldrop, the director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America.

The neighboring counties of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego all use a letter-grade format for food facility health inspections. Either an A, B or C grade can be earned during the inspection.

But Waldrop said there has not been sufficient research done yet to come to a consensus of which system is the most effective.

“I think at this stage there is a lot of different systems that are being tried,” Waldrop said. “Whichever system it is, the one that gives consumers accurate information that’s very readily available, those types of systems are the ones that work best for consumers.”