What can We Learn from Restaurant Grading in New York City
Have you ever walked into a restaurant in New York City and wondered what these letters mean?
The Health Department of New York City has asked restaurants to post their health inspection grades since 2010. The department has explained how the grades are determined in a document here. You should know that if a restaurant does not earn an A initially, it has a second chance later in the Health Department’s inspection cycle.
In its report, Restaurant Grading in New York City at 18 Months, The Health Department concludes that:
- Grading Has Led to Significant Improvements in Restaurant Sanitary Practices
- More Restaurants Earn A Grades on Initial Inspections, Require Less Frequent Inspections and Avoid Fines
- Restaurants Are Earning Better Grades through the Inspection Cycle
- Salmonella Infections Have Declined Since Letter Grading Was Implemented
If you are planning to go to a restaurant but do not know its grade, you can either check out their latest inspection by visiting DOHMH’s website or sipping through DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results on NYC Open Data.
Or, you could just Yelp it?
Unfortunately, no. Out of all the features Yelp provides when you’re searching for a restaurant, inspection grade is not one of them. They even have a “PokéStop Nearby” option in this long list, so it is very hard to accuse them of not being considerate for their users’ needs. However, food safety should be the one primary concern for someone who goes to a restaurant.
While the Health Department has done great job posting and updating the grades, the government might need to consider further cooperating with service providers such as Yelp and Google to ensure that people have access to inspection grades on the websites with the most traffics.
Also, noteworthily, chain restaurants such as Subway does not earn the same grade across New York City’s five boroughs.
Assuming that, just like the GPA scales most school systems in the U.S. employ, restaurants earn an A in an inspection cycle has 4 points as their grade. (Similarly, 3 points for a B and 2 points for a C.) On the above plot I made using the data from NYC Open Data, we can see that in some areas in Queens, Subway had a lower average grade points over the past several inspection cycles. If we are talking about the same restaurants managed by the same company in the same standard, why did this happen? Customers tend to place their trust more to chain restaurants like Subway, and often they might assume that because one of them has an A grade, the others are scored the same, but it is not the case here.
Also, what should the government do if restaurants in some areas collectively score lower grades than their counterparts in the other areas? If I am living in an area like that, I would love to be at least notified by the Health Department.
