Max Balliet’s Holey Moley food truck has been inspected six times this year, passing the health department review without fail. Still, he hears the uninformed slights and innuendo — food trucks are dirty, messy, fly-by-night grease pits, potential salmonella breeders on wheels.

That’s why nobody is happier than Balliet that Louisville is requiring the city’s 49 registered food truck vendors to post health grades in their windows.

“Being able to display our score is a good thing,” he said Monday. “Right now there’s no way for us to prove we’ve been inspected at all.”

Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness has always required food trucks to follow the same health regulations as restaurants. But, until now, they haven’t had to participate in the city’s ABC Food Placard Program, the system that displays brightly colored letter grades based on cleanliness and food handling.

Food truck say the visible grades will help their credibility. “It’s going to be way better for business, for sure,” said Robb Ross, owner of French Indo-Canada Food Truck. Customers such as Donnie Guinn, who bought lunch Monday from Urban Kitchen at Bardstown Road and Midland Avenue, predicted the new rule would improve food quality in Louisville. “I think it’s a good thing, man,” he said. Skip Brewer agreed, saying he liked the idea of being able to see a score in the window the moment he walked up to order his food. “If every other place in Louisville has to have it, so should the food trucks.”