Hagaon Hacham Mordechai Eliyahu z.s.l.

By: Dave Gordon

The City Health Department will soon start a new restaurant letter grading system. The grades, from A to C, reflect the sanitary conditions at restaurants and are required to be posted in a front window, door or wall that can be seen immediately as diners enter. It will take a full year before all of the city’s 24,000 restaurants receive a grade. Letter grading is meant to enable diners to make informed choices about where to eat. The restaurant industry fought the initiative, arguing that grades of B or C are unfair because the business is still deemed safe to remain open, but the public would likely shun it. The city agency says it expects the majority of restaurants to receive a B grade in the first year. About 5,000 people in the city visit a hospital emergency room annually because of a food-borne illness attributed to dining out.