New Placards Allow For Easy Checking Of Restauarant Inspection Reports

PITTSBURGH - The Allegheny County Health Department has unveiled new placards which will be on public display in numerous food establishments across the county.

Restaurant health ratings are a political hot potato, and since the grading system was shot down, the health department decided to go with QR coded stickers.

Green is the all clear.

"The yellow placards are a consumer alert and tell the public the conditions inside could pose a risk to the consumer," explained Donna Scharding, an Allegheny County Health Department food safety manager.

But you have no idea what risk.

Enter the QR code, which when scanned by a QR app on your phone (which you can download for free), will route you to the county inspection page. Type in the restaurant, and you'll find out exactly how serious the problem is within seconds.

The yellow stickers are only temporary. They allow the facility 10 days to make permanent corrections and get back to a green sticker.

If corrections aren't made, it's the red sticker and an ordered to close. So far 20 yellow stickers have been issued this year.

However, there are 9000 food facilities in Allegheny County, so 20 is not that many

Don't expect the old stickers to disappear anytime soon, they'll be replaced as each restaurant is inspected and that could take a year, two or maybe more.

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