The Boston City Council is reviewing an ordinance filed by Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh to establish a restaurant and food truck letter grading system to protect consumers and provide them with information about recent health inspections. If passed, the policy will allow inspectors to transmit violations noted into a numerical point system, which in turn will be assessed to a letter grade and prominently placed on the exterior wall of the establishment. The ordinance is similar to the system now used in New York City.
“By creating a grading system, we are providing an extra layer of transparency and accountability for restaurants and consumers,” said Walsh.
There are approximately 3,000 restaurants in the city of Boston that are inspected at least twice per year. Restaurants found to be at a higher risk for foodborne illness (high number of critical violations) are subject to additional inspections throughout the year.
“The newly proposed ordinance will not only allow for accountability but transparency as well,” said Boston Inspectional Services Department (ISD) Commissioner William Christopher. “Posting the letter grades will allow the public to have more information as they make their decision as to where they want to dine.”
ISD worked with members of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA) to garner feedback on the proposal and will continue to engage prior to implementing the letter grading system.
Bob Luz, president and CEO of the MRA, said, “We were invited by the mayor’s office and Commissioner Christopher to be a part of their conversation, which we appreciated. That being said, we believe the current system is working fine, that good strong interaction between inspectors and operators leads to the safest condition, and that incidents per number of units is down over the past 10 years. Operators hold food safety as job number one. An inspection is but a snapshot in time, and it is important to have ongoing dialogue with local inspectors. The mayor’s office did listen to our concerns and made adjustments to allow this to be more customer and operator friendly in the testing stages.”
Restaurants that do not earn an “A” during the initial inspection will automatically be re-inspected within 30 days. During the inspection the establishment will be given the opportunity to improve its letter grade by correcting the violations. If all violations have been corrected, the inspector will adjust the establishment’s score to reflect the most recent inspection and a new grade will be issued. If more than one re-inspection is requested, the owner/manager must pay an “off-hour inspection” fee and the issued letter grade will be evaluated. Failure to post the letter grade will result in a penalty of $300.
