As more Americans eat out and the number of retail food establishments increases, the concern for food safety also increases. To help prevent foodborne disease, retail food regulatory programs license and inspect retail food establishments. Some retail food regulatory programs have incorporated a scoring, grading, or placarding system as part of their regulatory approach. These systems vary between states and may even vary among localities within the same state.
NACCHO, with the support of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), recently released the Summary of Retail Food Inspection, Scoring, Grading, and Placarding Systems. This report provides an overview of case studies conducted to learn more about retail food inspection scoring, grading, and placarding systems, discussing the following key topics:
- Why do retail food regulatory programs implement scoring, grading, or placarding systems?
- Overview of Participants’ Grading, Scoring, or Placarding Systems
- How do jurisdictions derive point values or thresholds associated with scoring, grading, or placarding systems?
- How does the implementation of a scoring, grading, or placarding system impact a retail food regulatory program resources?
- How are inspection results, including grades, communicated to the public?
- How are stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of scoring, grading, or placarding systems?
- How does the implementation of a scoring, grading, or placarding system impact behavior for consumers, regulators, and establishment operators?
- Have jurisdictions collected data on the impact of their scoring, grading, or placarding system? If so, does the data suggest that a particular approach is more effective?
- Recommendations on Forming and Implementing Scoring, Grading, or Placarding System
Download the full report, here.
