DETROIT – Detroit City Council voted to approve a new ordinance impacting restaurants nationwide. The ordinance requires restaurants to post signs showing they comply with health inspections.
The new ordinance could better help consumers pick and choose where they want to eat.
When you go to a restaurant, you should see the placard displayed, and what you want to see is a green placard.
The Detroit City Council Ordinance approved the Dining with Confidence Ordinance on Tuesday (June 11) afternoon.
“We are putting this in our body, and we can get sick, so if they don’t cook it at the right temperature if they leave it out too long before cooking, anything in that process that’s thrown off could mess us up,” said Marketta Thomas.
Restaurants in compliance will have green placards, and those closed by the health department will have red placards. If restaurants don’t display the placards, they could be fined.
“We are letting people know very visibly and transparently how a restaurant has performed with food safety,” said Detroit City Council member Scott Benson.
Benson has been advocating for this measure for some time. After reviewing the results of a pilot program that ran from October to March, he introduced the latest version. Benson says more than 250 restaurants participated.
“One of the things we do here is have chef kitchen tours where they come into our kitchens and look around before and after our chef table meal,” said chef Omar Mitchell. “It’s great to have it because transparency is a must.”
Other cities have similar ordinances, but in New York and Los Angeles, restaurants receive a letter grade, with “A” being the top score.
This was a conversation we had with the restaurant industry,” Benson said. “They indicated they were opposed to that. We said that’s fine. Let’s do something modified.
“We have very serious concerns regarding how effectively and fairly this ordinance can be implemented by the Detroit Health Department. In our estimation, that department is well intended but dramatically too understaffed to efficiently enforce existing restaurant regulations. The incorporation of this regulation into their workload poses the very real threat of jeopardizing the reputation and livelihood of hundreds of restaurants in the city of Detroit and may very well drive investment outside of the city.”
Justin Winslow of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association
