Health Code Standards in NYC

Pretty much everyone who will read this has been to a restaurant in New York City. The first thing you see when you’re walking in the door is the huge health grade. Usually this doesn’t affect whether or not we actually eat at the certain establishment, we figure if it wasn’t safe to eat at they probably would shut it down, but it definitely does matter. So how exactly do they assign the health grades? Do they quiz the owners and give them a letter like an elementary teacher? Well they sort of do.

In 2010 the city Health Department required all restaurants to post their health results. Each year they inspect about 24,000 establishments. They assign the score based on the amount of points (or demerits) against the city and state regulations. If a restaurant accrues 0-13 points then it receives an A. 14-27 receives a B grade, and anything higher receives a C (unless it is so bad that they fear for the health of the patrons and shut it down).

There are differing degrees of violations too. A public health hazard, such as not maintaining food at the right temperature warrants a minimum of 7 points. A “critical violation” such as not washing salad or serving meat raw earns 5 points. Then a general violation like improper utensil sanitation earns 2 points. There is a lot of wiggle room for the graders to assign more points based on the severity of the violations.

To keep the inspections as accurate as possible, inspections are unannounced. If there is a new restaurant, that hasn’t been inspected it is still required to post a sign saying “inspection pending.” The only time owners can definitely be expecting an inspection is if they are initially inspected and receive a grade below an A. In this case they are re-inspected randomly within the next month or so and are given the chance to get a higher grade.

Basically the moral of the story is that the standard for food hygiene in NYC restaurants is pretty straight forward. If an establishment has an A, then it’s good to go; there are definitely no vermin problems and the owners have firm control over sanitation. If it's lower, then theres probably some deep seeded issues with that place. If you happen to have a questionable dining experience you can call the Department of Health and there’s a solid chance they will inspect it in the next year.