“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 healing and doing ok. My…
Data Software Company Aims to Revolutionize Access to Restaurant Inspection Scores
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 failed recent health inspections, had…
Schacht Interview: Using Restaurant Inspection Data to Improve Public Health
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 efforts in Seattle’s King County…
UW Study Digs into Consumer Perceptions of Restaurant Grading Systems
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 100. Communicating a satisfactory amount…
Seattle’s King County Venturing into Uncharted Territory with New Restaurant Grading System
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 that the restaurant, Ambassel, also…
The Annual Food Safety News Christmas Day 'Nice List'
Editor’s note: We continue with our Food Safety News holiday tradition by publishing our fifth annual Christmas Day “nice” list, calling out a few folks we think are worthy of some positive mention based on their contributions to food safety during the past year. This year, we separated the “naughty,” published yesterday, from today’s “nice.” …
Two-Time E. coli Victim Pushes to Improve Seattle's Restaurant Grading System
Sarah Schacht is part of a select group of people with the distinction of falling ill with E. coli in two separate outbreaks. First a victim in Seattle’s Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak of 1993 at the age of 13, Schacht was hit with the bug again 20 years later after dining at…