Health Department Celebrates 15th Anniversary of the City's Restaurant Grading System
Restaurant Grading Allows New Yorkers to Make Informed Decisions About Where to Eat
A Powerful Incentive for Restaurants to Meet the Highest Food Safety Standards and Keep New Yorkers Safe
July 19, 2025 — The New York City Health Department celebrates the 15th anniversary of the City's restaurant grading system. In July 2010, the Health Department launched the letter grading program to enable New Yorkers to make informed decisions about where to eat out. Leveraging consumer “power of choice,” the system encourages restaurants to meet the highest food safety standards to earn an A grade. Restaurant grades quickly became a part of our streetscape and led restaurants to improve their food safety practices.
“New York City Health Department inspectors are New Yorkers’ eyes in the kitchen,” said Corinne Schiff, Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Health. “Every restaurant can keep customers safe and achieve an A grade by consistently observing essential food safety practices such as keeping food at safe temperatures and cooking food to required temperatures, washing hands before working with food, and maintaining a pest-free establishment.”
The Health Department inspects the city’s 29,000 restaurants for compliance with city and state food safety requirements. Restaurants meeting high standards by earning less than 14 points earn an A grade. All restaurants are required to post their final grade on display — regardless of points earned. Inspection results are also available on the Department’s ABC Eats webpage, so New Yorkers can check the grade when they are out or when making plans in advance.
Restaurant food safety practices started improving immediately after the Health Department started grading, resulting in fewer restaurants cited for keeping food at unsafe temperatures or for evidence of mice. Additionally, more food workers enrolled in the Department’s Food Protection Course, expanding the number of food workers trained to handle food safely.
Over the last 15 years, the Health Department expanded its industry outreach and education programs, offering free food safety workshops, low-cost consultative inspections, and a free inspection history report a restaurant can request to see trends in its inspection outcomes and focus on areas for improvement. The Department has added additional incentives for restaurants to achieve an A grade, and enabled restaurants to avoid fines if they “cure” certain violations by correcting the condition within days of the inspection and notifying the Department.
Guidance materials are available in multiple languages on the Health Department’s website, as is the checklist the inspector follows for the inspection, making every inspection an “open-book exam.” This spring, the Department began notifying restaurants by email that their initial inspection was coming up in few months and then again in a few weeks , and providing links to the Department’s food safety resources including information on common violations and how to avoid them to achieve an A grade.
See the latest inspection results for New York City restaurants on ABC Eats.
Learn more about how restaurants are scored and graded on the Health Department website.
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MEDIA CONTACT: PressOffice@health.nyc.gov