How NYC Restaurant Grades Really Work - a podcast by WNYC

During Thursday's mayoral debate, when asked which regulation she’d modify to help small businesses recover from the pandemic, former sanitation commissioner Katheryn Garcia said she’d like to see the city’s health inspectors schedule their annual inspections of restaurants — instead of showing up unannounced like they normally do. Charles Platkin, PhD, JD, MPH, director of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and health columnist at Diet Detective, joins to talk about how the system works and whether the surprise visits from health inspectors actually make restaurants safer.

@BrianLehrer People don’t realize how many common practices in restaurants are actually violations. Fruit behind the bar must be covered for instance and bartenders are supposed to wear gloves when cutting fruit. It’s even worse in the kitchen!

— Kamali Malcolm (@kamalimalcolm) May 18, 2021

@BrianLehrer Scheduled or surprise, the issue is that every inspector finds 'new' things. It's extremely idiosyncratic. Some are nice, some are sticklers looking for things that no owner or staff even knows to look out for. Many will ignore things that others will cite 3x over.

— Tiffany Em (@TiffanyEm) May 18, 2021

@BrianLehrer, further to your questions about letter grades, treat 'em like Michelin stars. A 'B' is fine, and not getting an 'A' is no disgrace for a deli or bodega...

— Geoff Wheeler (@geoffwhe) May 18, 2021

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