Curious about the health record of Pierce County eateries? New signs to show ratings

Starting Feb. 1, Pierce County restaurants must display their official inspection rating — “great,” “okay” or “needs to improve” — under a new health department program intended to boost transparency with the public.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department began mailing out the easy-to-read, emoticon signs Jan. 18 to every permitted facility in the county.

A green-backed sign with a smiley face indicates a food facility with little to no issues, as determined by routine visits from food safety inspectors with the health department. An orange-based mild smile means the business has some minor issues to address, while a straight face on a gray background represents additional problems.

The fourth tier is a frowny face on a red background with the words “closed temporarily,” caused either by an unexpected but immediate health risk — say, a power outage that would cut off energy to refrigerators or a broken hot water tank — or, in rare instances, repeated violations that pose a serious threat.

New businesses, which undergo a pre-opening inspection and a safety check within two weeks, will receive a blue “too new” sign. They will post their official rating after their second full inspection, no later than six months from their opening date, said Amber Gibbar, a health promotion coordinator at the health department.

Inspection reports have been available for the public to download and read online for a decade, “but they haven’t always been easy to read or easy to find,” said Gibbar, who worked for seven years as a restaurant inspector. Since 2018, she led the team that developed the revamped ratings system, which is modeled after the emoji-based program introduced by King County in 2017 and took feedback from the Board of Health and industry stakeholders.

“This essentially was our way to make the information easier to access for everyone,” she told The News Tribune this week.

The ratings will apply to any facility that handles food and must be permitted by the local health department: restaurants, cafeterias, food trucks or pop-up market vendors, brewery taprooms, grocery and convenience stores.

A SNAPSHOT OF PIERCE COUNTY RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS

Businesses must prominently display their badge, calculated as an average of the past four unannounced inspections.

“They will be required to be posted,” said Gibbar, “and they have to be posted in a location that is easy for customers to see.”

That might be at the front entrance, on the drive-thru window or near a takeout pickup counter.

The health department shared details of the new ratings system in 2020, but the pandemic hampered its rollout. Inspectors spent the past two years educating businesses to ensure no one is surprised to discover their — hopeful — smiley face seal of approval.

“We wanted to encourage and reward safe food handling,” said Gibbar of the emoticon approach, which in turn limits food-related illnesses and outbreaks.

She emphasized that the “okay” and “needs to improve” ratings still indicate a safe eatery.

“If a place is not safe, we close them,” she said. “We don’t leave a facility unsafe either.”

Inspectors make adjustments before they leave and note, for instance, if a kitchen needs a more active eye from managers.

Of nearly 4,000 locations across the county, she added, “Most of our facilities do really well.”

The agency estimates that 85 percent of high-risk facilities, such as a full-service restaurant, are “great.” More than 9 in 10 medium-risk facilities, like a deli that only works with cold-cuts rather than raw meat, fall into this top category.

About 4 percent of all facilities, but 8.6 percent of high-risk places, are considered “okay.” Only one-tenth of 1 percent of businesses — barely a handful — “needs to improve.”

The exception to the latter can occur for new medium- and high-risk eateries. If their first inspection reveals a multitude of critical issues, they will carry the “needs to improve” sign until passing a follow-up inspection.

Inspections themselves have not changed, said Gibbar, and detailed reports will continue to be available online at tpchd.org, where you can also view recent closures.

This story was originally published January 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.