TACOMA, Wash. — Those eating out or buying groceries in Tacoma and throughout Pierce County will soon be greeted with new food safety signs.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department unveiled the new signs this week following a years-long endeavor to help the public better understand food safety inspection results.
In 2018, the health department looked at how other counties and cities shared their food safety information and gathered input from the Food Advisory Board, Board of Health, restaurants and public.
Those living in Pierce County can find food safety inspection results on the health department's website, but the health department learned through the feedback that it could be confusing.
The new signs are broken into three distinct categories:
- Great: We found very few or no concerns.
- Okay: We found some concerns.
- Needs to improve: We found many or repeated concerns.
According to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, 0.1% of restaurants would get a “needs to improve” sign at a given time.
The health department said it will sometimes close a restaurant temporarily if it has a pattern of food safety problems. The problems could include any of the following:
- Lack of refrigeration
- Fire, flood or power outage
- No hot water
- Sewage backup
- Restroom not working
- Lack of permit
- Foodborne illness
The health department said to look out for the new signs in restaurants, grocery stores, concession stands and any other place that serves food starting in February.
