Restaurants

Boston to evaluate restaurants’ food-safety practices with letter grades

A restaurant in New York where letter grades have been posted on storefronts since 2010 to rate an establishment’s cleanliness and food-safety practices. Mario Tama / Getty Images

Boston plans to tackle cleanliness and food-safety practices at restaurants, cafes, food trucks, and other city eateries by publicly grading establishments’ practices and assigning a letter to their performance, The Boston Globe reported.

The new system — which is already in place in New York City and Los Angeles — will give restaurants either an A, B, or C for following regulations, hoping to motivate those lagging behind, according to the Globe. During the first year of the program (which begins in early January), the grades will be made available online for customers to view. After that, the grades will be posted on storefronts for restaurant-goers to see as they enter the door.

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The initiative comes just months after health inspection data for 2014 revealed that more than 1,350 food establishments of the 3,000 in Boston had at least two violations that could lead to food-borne illness, the Globe reported.

“This is meant to allow us to work with restaurants,’’ William Christopher, the head of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department, told the Globe. “The inspection process and the way that happens now will not be changing … [and] this is not about creating violations. It’s about creating a really good positive environment for our city.’’

Read the full Globe story here.

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