Detroit Launches a Food Safety Grading System for the City’s 1,900 Restaurants #DetroitFood
Diners can now have a clearer view of whether their favorite restaurants are up to code.
After years of back and forth, including resistance from a group of Detroit Black business owners, the city now has a restaurant food safety ordinance that requires restaurateurs to display the results of Health Department inspections via color-coded placards.
As part of the City of Detroit’s Dining with Confidence ordinance, as of Tuesday, October 1, diners visiting the city’s 1,900 licensed food establishments will now see placards in red, green, or white. The color-coded grades indicate whether an eatery is in compliance or whether it has been forced to close for failing to correct serious violations of Michigan’s Food Safety Code.
After facing backlash from members of the business community over concerns that such an ordinance could disproportionately impact entrepreneurs of color, the city launched a voluntary pilot program that ran from October 2023 through March 2024; Approximately 250 restaurants participated in the pilot. In June, the Detroit City Council approved Benson’s ordinance. According to a news release issued by the city late Tuesday, there are no changes to the regulation or inspection of dining establishments beyond the introduction of placards.
According to the ordinance, a green placard means that an establishment has no serious food safety violations and has a valid food service license; a white placard is a temporary status and means that the business needs corrections, and also provides visitors with details about how to look further into the results of the restaurant’s inspection results; while a red placard is used if the eatery lacks a food service license, poses a serious health risk, or is in the final step of enforcement, the news release says.
Denise Fair Razo, the city’s chief public health officer, and Detroit City Council Member Scott Benson — the elected official who, for years, has been pushing for further transparency in restaurant inspections — provided details about the new color-coded placards on Tuesday from Table No. 2 in Greektown as part of the launch of the ordinance. The restaurant, owned and operated by chef Omar Mitchell, received the first placard, according to the Detroit News.
“Detroiters and visitors need to feel confident that when they dine out in Detroit, the food they eat has been prepared in a clean and healthy environment and that it is safe to eat,” said Fair Razo in the media announcement. She went on to say that the department’s Environmental Health team regularly inspects more than 1,900 restaurants and food trucks every year, in addition to more than 300 temporary food service vendors at events such as those who participate in major events, such as the NFL Draft and the Grand Prix.
Anyone interested in accessing inspection results can do so through the Detroit Health Department’s Food Safety Open Data Portal.
from Eater Detroit - All
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