The Coast Guard’s 65 signal flags and pennants were part of Scott Benson’s life for 20 years. He retired with the rank of Commander and now finds himself an elected Detroit City Councilmember, chairing the Public Health and Safety Committee.
Those signal flags might explain why Benson prefers color-coded signs
Continue Reading Hepatitis A outbreak prompts city to consider restaurant ratings
Bloomberg posted a piece on “How Donald Trump Orders (and Tips) at His Favorite Restaurant” about the 21 Club, which is just a few blocks from Trump Tower in Manhattan.
According to the report:
The president’s standard order is a “21” Burger ($36), which he likes cooked well-done and topped
Continue Reading Publisher’s Platform: Trump orders his burgers well done
“My husband ate at this restaurant on Friday 10/16/2015 and was admitted to the ICU with a bacterial infection from food poisioning [sic],” Kari F. wrote on the Mariscos San Juan Yelp page on Oct. 19. “It was a very scary experience for all. I hope that others affected are
Continue Reading Open Data on Restaurant Inspections a Useful Tool for Consumers and Government
The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) Sanitation Branch has issued a red “closed” placard to Blue Water Shrimp and Seafood Market located at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu. Numerous health inspections revealed chronic temperature violations. The department has issued a penalty fee of $9,000 for the violations
Continue Reading Honolulu Restaurant Closed for Food Safety Violations
Imagine being able to travel to any city in the country — or even the world — and pull up Yelp, Urbanspoon, or a similar smartphone app and instantly access a universal health inspection scoring system for the restaurants you might want to patronize. 
You could immediately see which restaurants
Continue Reading Data Software Company Aims to Revolutionize Access to Restaurant Inspection Scores
Open government consultant and food safety advocate Sarah Schacht sat down with Food Safety News at the 2015 Food Safety Summit in Baltimore, MD, last month to talk about how data from restaurant inspections can help improve public health. Schacht is a two-time E. coli survivor who has been spearheading
Continue Reading Schacht Interview: Using Restaurant Inspection Data to Improve Public Health
Health officials in Orange County, CA, are reportedly getting ready to again propose rating restaurants with letter grades based on their latest inspection results. There have been two previous attempts to convince the county’s board of supervisors to adopt the system using A, B and C letter grades. This time,
Continue Reading Orange County to Reconsider Adopting Restaurant Letter Grades
In recent years, numerous cities around the world have adopted systems that require restaurant health inspection scores to be communicated clearly at the restaurant. In New York City, prospective diners see an A, B, or C grade in the restaurant’s front window. Elsewhere, customers see a percentage score out of
Continue Reading UW Study Digs into Consumer Perceptions of Restaurant Grading Systems
When Sarah Schacht walked through the doors of an Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle in February 2013 to grab a meal with a friend, the only accessible information she had about the place was its Yelp score: It had the highest-rated Ethiopian cuisine in the city. What Schacht didn’t know was
Continue Reading Seattle’s King County Venturing into Uncharted Territory with New Restaurant Grading System
As a trained chef, Matthew Eierman doesn’t have a lot of forgiveness for health inspection violations at restaurants. As a diner, he’d prefer to avoid establishments with poor health records. “When I go to a restaurant, I’m worried about problems that cause illness,” Eierman said. “Cross-contamination, proper holding temperatures —
Continue Reading New App Shows Health Inspection Records for Nearby Restaurants
