Should Shasta County Restaurants Be Graded?
REDDING LIFESTYLES, SHASTA COUNTY
February 4th, 2010
A local reporter blogged recently about how disgusting the health department report was for one of his favorite Redding restaurants. I blogged about a solution that would cost little or nothing for the county to implement. I believe Shasta County residents and visitors alike would benefit from this simple program already in place in many other counties across California. Here’s my September 2008 post:
As a director for the California Association of Realtors, I attend meetings three times a year in cities across the state. This is my 10th year traveling for the Shasta Association of Realtors, and one healthy practice I’ve noticed elsewhere but lacking locally, is a restaurant grading system.
How does it work? The Shasta County Environmental Health Department sets up a system of conducting a health inspection of all restaurants in the county (yes, they already do this) and issues a grade based on the inspection results (no, they don’t do this). If a restaurant achieves a 90% or better compliance (for example) with health laws regarding food handling, food safety and cleanliness, they are issued a large letter “A” on a piece of paper which they can prominently display in the window or door of the eating establishment, for all to see.
Guess what? All restaurants want to display that big letter “A” in their window. They make an extra effort to keep their place of business in order, otherwise they will loose their badge of honor. Such a simple concept, yet our local health officer has not implemented such a program. A couple of phone calls to other counties that have a program in place, by a local health department employee, would get the ball rolling for Shasta County. Is that too much to ask?
Travelers, like me, familiar with the program seek out dining establishments that passed their health inspections with flying colors. Shasta County maintains a website, as other counties do, that list the results of the most recent health inspections of area restaurants. I don’t have the time to check and re-check the website for my favorite haunts so establishing a grading system seems like a no-brainer.
Our health department head is one of the highest paid public employees at the county, earning nearly $200,000/year plus benefits. Isn’t it time to develop a simple way for all of us to know before we walk in the door of our favorite eating place how they did on their last health inspection? What do you think?
530-224-6767 or 530-941-7492
BRAD GARBUTT
