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Restaurant visitors in Fishers next month will begin seeing letter grades posted on eatery doors based on health department sanitary inspections.
The Fishers Health Department began issuing grades this year to restaurants based on their sanitation practices as part of its Retail Food Inspection Grading System. The Fishers City Council approved the program in November.
Restaurants receive a letter grade from A to C based on a 100-point scale. Grades can be viewed through an interactive dashboard on Fishers’ city website. Restaurants will be required to post labels displaying their grades to their doors by Sept. 30.
Restaurants that received an A scored 81 to 100 points, while restaurants with a B received 71 to 80 points. Those with a C had 61 to 70 points.
If a restaurant received fewer than 60 points, it was temporarily closed and allowed to reopen once violations were corrected.
According to the city, 243 restaurants received A grades, while 16 had a B and 16 others had a C. The Fishers Health Department will begin issuing grades to food trucks next year.
Grading is based on three categories: priority, priority foundation and core violations.
Priority violations subtract five points each and are related to hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury. Priority foundation violations deduct three points each and are issues that support, facilitate or enable one or more priority violations. A core violation subtracts two points and is related to general sanitation, operational controls, sanitation standard operating procedures, facilities, structures, equipment design or general maintenance.
Fishers Health Department Director Monica Heltz said in written remarks that restaurant grade labels are a popular program in cities around the United States, but they are rare to see in Indiana.
Fishers is the second community in the state to institute a letter grade system for restaurants. In 2004, Harrison County in southern Indiana passed an ordinance requiring restaurants to post placards showing the graded results of their most recent inspection.
“We hope to lead the charge in improving food safety standards in central Indiana,” Heltz said. “Food grades are an evidenced-based strategy to achieve this aim. The health and safety of our residents is our top priority, and we are dedicated to partnering with our local restaurants to ensure they are successful under this new model.”
The Fishers Health Department will issue new grades each year during annual inspections.
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Cudos to the Fishers Health Department for leading this charge.
We’re already using these grades (on the website) to determine where to spend our money and where to avoid.
“Fishers is the second city in the state to institute a letter grade system for restaurants.”
What other city does this?
I’m not sure which city the writers are referring to, but my family lives in Attica and they have done this for a few years now, basically identical to what Fishers is doing.
This is something that should be mandatory. New York City has had this for decades.
Great idea that should be more widely implemented. Not surprised by some of the B’s & C’s. https://map.fishers.in.us/restaurants/
Good idea and should be far more common. Louisville and St Louis also have letter-grades.