Restaurant Health Codes

How often do we walk past the health code signs at restaurants, never looking at them, just assuming they're always going to be an A?  Well, it takes a lot of hard work to meet all the safety and cleanliness requirements.  So let's take a look at one of those signs:

I assume there is a lot of variation across the country and around the world.  In the top corners we can see the County of San Diego logo and the San Environmental Health Department logo.  They're a bit blurry here, but I'm impressed at the resolution of my phone camera -- surprised they came out readable at all from 20 feet away.

Next I wonder what the barcode scan would take us to.  It goes to SDFoodInfo.org which starts by saying you can search for over 95,000 inspection results for San Diego restaurants, markets and food trucks.  Click to get started and you get a map saying "Hold on, loading Food Info."  Oddly, when I click a map marker of the nearest food place near us, it is unresponsive.  But you can hit List and Search and find the whole history of a place.  Apparently, hot and cold water issues are minor violations, but vermin will get you closed down.  Thawing methods, ventilation and lighting can be out of compliance.  (This has nothing to do with the location where I photographed the sign, but just my generic scrolling through their database.)

There is a ton of information behind these signs.  And it's also a good indication of the scale of the food industry and the regulators and inspectors who work to keep us safe.

At bottom left ... well, duh ... I guess the sign is recyclable!!

 

 

I think I only ever saw a C rating once.  That was about 15 years ago at a Peruvian restaurant in the outskirts of L.A.  The food was great, and it was odd seeing the big "C" in passing on the way out.