Inspection Grades Up for Eateries in County

The Los Angeles County health department’s new letter-grade system for restaurants has made food safer, a county official said Thursday, but the only evidence he could offer was the fact that restaurants are getting higher grades.

Whether this means restaurant food is safer than it was before the letter-grade system was instituted this year can only be assumed, acknowledged Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health.

The grading system began in January after news reports documented failings in the county’s inspection program. Under the new system, the county’s 36,000 food establishments are assigned A, B or C letter grades or, failing to attain one of those, a number grade below 70. Most cities within the county require restaurants to post the grades in public view.

Fielding said at a news conference that more restaurants are getting A and B grades. Fewer are getting grades of C or below.

“I am proud to report that as a result of this program, it is now safer to eat out,” Fielding said.

However, Al Medina, director of food and milk safety for the Department of Health Services, said, “It’s probably too early to make any correlation between the grading system and food safety.”

Reports of food-borne illnesses have actually increased slightly since the new grading system began, Medina said. Such illnesses have inched upward annually since a fatal outbreak of E. coli bacteria in fast-food hamburgers in Washington state in 1993.

Medina said reports of food illnesses are just as likely to be traced to a restaurant with an A rating as a C.

Fielding said in a later interview that there is no empirical data to support his conclusion that restaurant food is safer because of the grading system.

“How much hard evidence is there?” he said. “A lot of it is just common sense.”

The only measurable change in the system is the grades.

The actual numbers of restaurant inspectors and inspections are unchanged. The county employs 114 people to inspect an estimated 36,000 food establishments, which include restaurants, delis, grocers, bakeries and convenience stores.

Sixty-two percent of food establishments rated this year received grades in the A range, up from 40% from roughly equivalent non-letter scores in 1997. B grades more than doubled from 12% to 25%. C grades fell from 26% to 9%. The average number of code violations per inspection declined from 5.7 to 4.2, Fielding said.

Consumers who want to know exactly what violations were found at a particular food establishment may request the full inspection report. Establishments must make the reports available.

The letter grades equate to percentage ranges. A equals 90%-100%, B is 80%-89% and C is 70%-79%. Consumers can assume that restaurants with lower grades pay less attention to safety, Fielding said, although any restaurant with a posted grade is theoretically safe to eat at.

“If we thought there was something that posed an immediate threat to public health, we would close the restaurant immediately,” Fielding said.

The department has closed about 100 restaurants this year.

Fielding said he uses the grades to determine where he eats and said anecdotal evidence suggests that many consumers do likewise. The grades are also posted on the county’s World Wide Web site at www.dhs.co.la.ca.us.

The county received about 2,000 reports of food-borne illness last year. Fielding said that might represent as little as 1% of actual incidents. Food illnesses are normally relatively mild and are treated at home. Unless a large number of people become ill simultaneously, it is often impossible to determine the cause.

Nationally, about 100,000 cases are reported each year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 9,000 people die from food illnesses annually. There is no data to indicate how many food illnesses are due to restaurant meals.