NYC Food Carts Will Soon Get Grades Like Restaurants

NEW YORK — It will soon be easier to tell if that curbside snack might wreak havoc on your body. Mobile eateries will soon get letter grades based on their food safety inspections as the Department of Health expands a program used in restaurants for years, officials announced Friday.

The program will kick off in December and will cover all 5,500 food trucks and carts authorized to operate in the city, the Health Department said.

"Letter grades on food carts and trucks will help New Yorkers see how these businesses fared on their latest inspection, right when they want to place an order," Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the acting health commissioner, said in a statement. "Just as diners appreciate letter grading in restaurants, we expect this program to be popular among customers of food carts and trucks."

Food carts and trucks will get an "A," "B," or "C" grade, which will get posted on the unit, corresponding to the scores they receive at their inspections, officials said.

Vendors could get dinged for a wide range of violations, from the temperature of the food and how it's handled to the presence of mice or rats. It will take about two years to inspect and grade every truck and cart, the Health Department said.

The department will also outfit every cart and truck with a location-sharing device so they can be tracked down when it's time for an inspection, officials said. The department said it will query a vendor's location information only when they're due for inspection and will delete all location data within 24 hours.

The grade system was established under a law the City Council passed last year. The Health Department said it plans to hold workshops in the coming months for vendors to learn about the new program and how to avoid violations.

"I believe that the customers who buy food from a street vendor deserve to have the same ability to make an informed decision as do patrons of restaurants," City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens), who sponsored the law, said in a statement.

(Lead image: A worker and his food cart are seen in June 2018 in Midtown Manhattan. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)