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A Stir Over Plan to Grade New York City’s Restaurants
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Corey K. Williams, a city health inspector, at the Arome Deli on Broadway. Starting in 2010, the city will give letter grades rather than number grades.
It is a basic, unannounced ritual, performed 52,657 times last year and enacted at 9:14 one recent morning. “I’m Inspector Williams from the department of health, and you’re going to have your inspection today,” said Corey K. Williams, holding out badge No. 3042 to Sonia Kim in the Best of the Best Deli at 11 Park Place in the financial district.
Soon Mr. Williams was methodically working his way through the restaurant’s subterranean kitchen and storage rooms. “My heart is racing,” said the owner, Peter Kim.
Mr. Kim, 62, like thousands of owners of food-service establishments, lives in fear not only of fines and their effect on his thin profit margin, but also of being shut down immediately and forced to post the dreaded yellow closing notice.
“They are so strict,” he said. “They cost me, $2,000, $3,000, easy, each time they come.”
In July 2010, the stakes will be even higher, with the results posted for customers to see: a blue A, a green B or a yellow C on an 8-by-10-inch inspection placard.
The postings, a first for New York, are part of an ambitious new food-safety program announced last month by Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The city’s nearly 25,000 restaurants will be compelled to prominently display their inspection grades The announcement of the grade-posting program. The lower the grade, the more often the restaurant will be inspected.
Under the current system, restaurants are inspected once a year, and the numerical grades — anything above 28 is a failing mark — are available at the department or online at www.nyc.gov/health.
New York, NY |
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