Grading Food

This burrito comes from one of my favourite Mexican restaurants. And I’ve never checked the restaurant’s rating – because I’m afraid that if I do… I’ll never go back. It’s probably like a D-… I should probably check the rating.

I’ll check it after I eat this.

So what is the whole ‘restaurant rating’ thing about anyway? No, it’s not the one in the newspaper telling you about the hot new place in town. It’s the one you see in the little sign outside the window of your favourite deli. It’s the one that’s trying to tell you – WARN you – of the dangers that lurk inside.

Like the tests you take in school, restaurants get grades – letter grades – given to them by government health inspectors. You start off with 100 points and are marked down for problems the inspector finds. An A is 90 to 100 points, a B is 80 to 89 points, and a C is 70 to 79 points. Anything less than 70 is a failing grade.

It sounds good, right? You’d be happy if you got 90 out of 100 on a test… not THIS test. Let me put it in perspective for you… there’s no D. A C is as close as you can get to a failing grade. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that inspection scores of 85 or lower was NOT satisfactory (and ‘not’ was in all capital letters).

85 – that’s, what, a mid range B? Any less than that and your food probably has a disease.

We looked at the inspection detail report for a cruise ship and there were 18 items the health inspector noted. The issues ranged from water draining to a slight problem with their sneeze guard. Their passing grade – 97, clean as a whistle.

Points are removed for little things, like lack of proper refrigeration, to big ones like not washing your hands or… infestations.

Are the bugs gone??? Can we start cooking?

Let’s say some food was left out on the table uncovered and the occasional fly comes by for a pit stop. If the temperature of the food is okay, it passes inspection. On the other hand, if your buffet table doesn’t have a sneeze guard, you’ll get docked on that… BIG time!

Oh wait! It’s the same table! This was left uncovered… I think the flies make it tastier… oh, that’s not fly, that’s… nah it doesn’t matter.

So I guess the restaurant rating system can be summed up like this: A – alright, B – bad, and C – See you later.

Okay, yeah, it’s not totally fair. The United States has some very strict health codes when it comes to food preparation. Here in San Diego your average ‘B’ rated greasy spoon Taco shop would be an ‘A+’ if you drove south of the border.

And those are some good tacos. C’mon! It’s not like anybody down there’s dying from it… A little sneeze never hurt anybody.

If you’re one of those people who’d love to see the health inspector walk in with a bunch of CSI gear, remember, not only would every restaurant you’ve ever eaten at fail, but your kitchen would be at the bottom of the list.

When was the last time YOU had the health inspector over for dinner… or washed your hands for that matter?

Transcribed by: Ian

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