Professor emeritus and Groundhog Day enthusiast Hugh Pennington said last month a new law forcing cafes and restaurants in Wales to display their food hygiene ratings was needed to ensure food safety.

Because there is no evidence voluntary systems work.

California and most North American jurisdictions have long got past the mandatory vs. voluntary debate, and are occasionally trying to improve things.

In Pasadena, California, Public Health Director Eric Walsh says that he would consider re-evaluating the department’s unique restaurant rating system and possibly replacing it with the letter grades used by the county.

Unlike the grading system at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which requires restaurants to post a letter grade in the window, Pasadena’s system merely asks restaurants to post a pass or fail notice. Patrons who want to find out the restaurant’s score out of 100 or see what violations it has can look at inspection reports on the Health Department’s website.

The Pasadena reports contain a list of numerical codes that can be difficult to decipher. And, unlike the county, Pasadena will allow restaurants with scores below 60 to remain open.

Javier Ardini, owner of Malbec Argentinean steakhouse restaurant, said he has restaurants outside of Pasadena. He said he doesn’t prefer one system over another.

“As far as I’m concerned, I would adapt to any system,” Ardini said. “For me, it makes no difference.”

But the system does matter to an anonymous New York City vendor, who spoke out about what she felt were unfair fines.

“We got two violations. One was for leaving our ice scoop in an ice bucket and the other was for a pair of tongs hanging on the side of a box. Each ticket cost $200, but they didn’t tell us the amount of the fine until we appeared at a tribunal for our testimony. … They basically wiped out our profit for the day. Those five hours at the market plus hours of prep time went towards paying the DOH.”