McNelly Tores writes in today’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel 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.