The ABC’s of restaurant ratings - (The Orange County Register)

February 24, 2008 – 8:04 pm

http://www.ocregister.com/news/violations-restaurant-food-1985892-county-system
In 2007, Mariscos Moncho El Pescador on South Main Street in Santa Ana had one rodent and four cockroach infestations. It had a total of 25 major violations and a record 115 minor violations. It was closed by the health department six times.
In the same year, The Arches Restaurant on 29th Street in Newport Beach had no violations – major or minor.
For a consumer, there is, according to this story, no way to know the difference. Orange County, in contrast to all neighboring counties, mandates only that restaurants post a seal that indicates the restaurant meets a minimum standard of food safety – without defining, as other counties do, a range of excellence.
The result, critics say, is a food safety information system that – in failing to publicly distinguish between restaurants with high rates or serious kinds of violations and those without – is friendlier to restaurants than the diners […]


MORE:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=24495


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