Do you check a restaurant’s sanitation score before dining?
18 Feb
Does that little framed certificate sporting a restaurant’s sanitation score make a difference to you? Because it does to 73 percent of the people surveyed by the Wake County Environmental Services Food Sanitation Section (now that’s a mouthful). In an online survey administered last month, 1,000 people detailed their thoughts on restaurant cleanliness.
Among the findings: 55 percent say places that serve food should be inspected at least quarterly while 31 percent said those inspections should happen monthly. Also, it seem a score in the 90 to 93.5 percent range is what triggers diners to think twice before ordering. The full results can be found here.
BTW, Wake County’s Food Sanitation Section is responsible for inspecting 1,795 restaurants and 502 food service establishments, in addition to 160 temporary food booths at the State Fair. That’s a lot of check ups.
As for me, sometimes I take notice of a restaurant’s score (usually if it’s displayed prominantly) but I don’t seek it out. I remember Joe & Jo’s in downtown Durham (RIP) had a pretty low score for a while (90 percent if I remember accurately). I remember joshing Chris the bartender about it a lot, but he always defended it, saying something like the inspector just so happen to come on a day a cooler was broken (or something like that). But I never got sick from eating there.
What about you? How important is the rating system to your dining habits?
Oh, and here are some handy little Websites that let you check restaurant scores in Wake County, Durham County and Orange County. Or you can search by state.
I *definitely* check the scores. But it’s still a novelty for me; we didn’t have publicly posted scores like that in Canada.
I went on a trip with a previous boyfriend, his brother and his brother’s girlfriend last summer. We were in South Carolina and ran by a Bojangles on our way home from the beach. The other girlfriend actually refused to eat there because she did not see the score posted inside. (I ate, but give me a break- I was hungry and the place looked incredibly clean)…we got up to leave and get her some food at a different restaurant. When we got outside we noticed on the door that the sanitary score was a 98, it was just posted outside instead of inside. She caused such a stink, but ended up getting food to-go before we left.
So, for anyone eatting in South Carolina, apparently the scores are posted on the doors….
Sometimes I don’t WANT to know the score, so I don’t look. Sometimes I NEED to know, so I look.
Bojangles is a way of life, so I usually don’t bother looking!
I have walked out because of a low score – but only b/c the restaurant looked scary enough to put the fear in me that I’d get sick!
Courtney, I’ve got a friend who is also crazy paranoid about the score, the first thing she looks for when she walks through the door. I really do not get caught up in all the scores.
I had a friend get food poisoning at a place with a 100+ rating, woops!
I rarely worry about it, but it seems like I see the score posted by the front, so I usually take a peek.
I’ll leave a place if it’s a B or lower.
lPAg08 comment4 ,
I am not interested in the so-called sanitation score, and have no idea of how it can help us. But it is important to select a clean restaurant when dining out, especially for a family time.
I live in Toronto, and up there we have Pass, Conditional Pass, and Closed. The two most recent results are posted, and the restaurant must make the report available should you want to see it (but they might look at you as though you have three eyes first). I have been to NC a couple of times and I love being able to see an actual score. Personally, I won’t eat under 95.