by jbs032210 i3 — March 24, 2010—The New York City Board of Health voted March 16 to rate cleanliness in the city’s more than 24,000 restaurants, adopting a controversial plan proposed last year by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Despite protests by the New York City chapters of the New York State Restaurant Association mentioned in the New York Times that the mandated posting raises free speech issues and could be misleading, the Board asserts that the letter grades will help New Yorkers make informed choices and will promote food safety by making restaurants directly accountable to consumers.
The Board says the goal is to improve sanitary conditions and reduce the risk of food-borne illness, which reportedly causes several thousand hospitalizations in New York City each year, and as many as 10,000 emergency room visits.
The new initiative requires all restaurants to publicly display letter grades at their point of entry that summarize the results of Health Department food-safety inspections. Restaurants receiving A grades will be inspected less often than those receiving lower marks, enabling the city to focus resources on restaurants that warrant more scrutiny.
For more information on the proposed restaurant grading system, visit the NYC DOH Web site. The site also provides the latest inspection results for New York City’s restaurants.
