restaurant letter grading

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/loophole-lets-unhealthy-restaurants-post-passing-letter-grades-1.3056687

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/city-steps-up-efforts-to-thwart-restaurant-inspection-bribes-1.2913503

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/dirty-dining-manhattan-nabes-that-serve-up-the-most-health-violations-1.2671873

all of us has attended school and all of us have taken exams in school.  when the teacher is there everyone follows through on their behavior or else you'd get in trouble.  during exams, teachers at times may step out of the classroom and head somewhere else, such as heading to the teachers lounge to pick something up or maybe a bathroom stop and the list goes on.  when the teacher leaves the room, she can either ask a teacher next door to keep watch at her students while she is temporarily away or leave the students unattended while she leaves the room momentarily.  in either case, the students are left open for anything.  now during an exam in class, most students would ask other students for answers and solutions to any of the questions they have a problem with in the exam.  in other words, students are cheating while the teacher is away.

now lets compare this to the grading level that are given to restaurants in nyc.  i have and am currently working at a restaurant and can tell you that there are things where we do violate the regulations and is often on a daily basis, such as failure in providing experation dates on used products or simply over label an expired label with a new label.  the general process of an inspection is that inspectors can stop by your location at any time either with a notice or as a surprise.  it wouldn't matter on either.

lets start off with a notice.  managers or owners would be notified that they would be visited by a health inspector and would make necessary arrangements to insure that the restaurant is in accordance to standards.  btw, just because the inspector says they're coming at a particular day doesn't necessarily mean they are coming.  it just means the restaurant needs to keep an eye out and remain vigilant in standards.  when the inspector stops by, everything or most of the standards in the store are meet in accordance to the standard and the restaurant is given a passing grade.  so basically, the restaurant can be as dirty as they'd like before the inspection and manage to pass as they prepare to meet standards on the day the inspector stops by. 

the second is surprise inspections.  with surprise inspections, managers and owners panic and start to force everyone to perform standard maintenance, that means they would tell workers to start cleaning up, put labeling dates, etc....  this is important because it shows to the inspector that the workers are doing [or rather trying] their job in meeting the "A" grade standard.  here's an example, suppose an inspector says that there are no dates on a storage container.  the managers could say that the employees are currently busy and would make a label when it is no longer busy, or as the manager would have shown that the employees are trying to provide one but the inspector came at a bad moment and the employee never had the chance to make a expiration label.  so during a surprise inspection, restaurants are able to pass as they are providing cover up and bullshit to the inspector. 

passing the inspection is easy.  all of us have went to school and all of us have used or follow a list of rules and proceedures.  passing the inspection is all about following a check list.  when we go to the store, we make a list of things to buy and when we get those things, we mark them out on the list and move on to the next.  when we do our school work or our jobs, we make a mental [or written] check list of the things that needs to be accomplished.  it is not complicated to pass the inspection when you follow the check list and that is all there is to it.  restaurants that fail the inspections should be closed because they are too stupid to follow a check list.