Hygiene in Restaurants in New York

Hygiene in restaurants in New York is usually indicated by letters in restaurant windows. They can be very useful to you when you’re looking for a place to eat! These A’s, B’s and C’s will tell you all about the sanitary conditions of a particular restaurant. For many years, it was extremely difficult to get insights into these conditions. Choosing a restaurant is of course also a matter of taste, but my guess is that you’ll be more comfortable knowing that the staff assigns great value to hygiene.

A-Graded Restaurants in New York

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducts unannounced sanitary inspections of all restaurants in New York. Every restaurant gets a score, based on the number of violations: the lower the score, the better the letter grade. In fact, the points stand for a violation of a regulation. Restaurants with a score between 0 and 13 will earn an A; restaurants that score between 14 and 27 will get a B and restaurants with a score of 28 or more will receive a letter grade C. Don’t worry if you don’t see a letter grade on the window. Possibly, the restaurant you’re about to visit is still up for inspection. Online you can find the ratings of all New York restaurants.

What do Inspectors Check for?

Below you will find some examples of things that are checked for violations:

• food handling
• food temperature
• staff’s personal hygiene
• maintenance of kitchen appliances
• vermin control

Violations of Regulations

The number of points a restaurant gets by violating a regulation depends on the health risks it could cause to the guests. Here below you’ll find several examples of violations by restaurant owners:

1. A public health hazard. For instance: not keeping food at the right temperature. This violation costs the restaurant at least seven points. If the problem can’t be solved before the end of the inspection, the restaurant might be forced to close until the problem is solved.
2. A critical violation. For instance: serving lettuce that hasn’t been washed thoroughly. For a mistake like this, a restaurant will receive a minimum of five points.
3. A general violation. For instance: not having properly cleaned kitchen appliances will result in two to five points.