Editor’s note: The following was written by King County Public Health Communications Specialist Sam Lovell and originally published by Public Health Insider, the official blog for Public Health — Seattle & King County. For more information, go to publichealthinsider.com.
We have great news for food lovers across King County.
Public Health’s popular food safety rating system – the green smiley face signs in restaurant windows – is expanding to include more food businesses. Starting this month, mobile food vendors (like food trucks and carts), bakeries, meat and fish vendors, and catering companies will be included in the rating system. These businesses already are inspected to make sure they’re following food safety rules, but up until now they have not received signs with a food safety rating.
We’ve made this change so that people in King County can more easily get food safety information about local businesses. This will also make it easier to recognize if a vendor has a food business permit from Public Health. Recently, there’s been an increase in the number of mobile vendors operating without permits in the County.
TIMING & DETAILS FOR THE NEW SIGNS
Public Health’s inspectors will hand out the new food safety rating signs during businesses’ first inspections in 2025. This process will take several months – there are over 750 mobile food vendors, alone, in King County!
Since we can’t get to all the vendors immediately, we’re giving temporary signs to businesses to display starting in January to make it clear that they’re permitted but waiting on their first inspection of the year to get a rating. See below for a picture of the temporary sign.
BACKGROUND ON THE FOOD SAFETY RATING SYSTEM
If a food business is open and permitted in King County, it meets the minimum food safety standards to operate. The food safety rating system gives you an idea of how well a restaurant practices food safety beyond meeting the minimum standards.
We give four possible ratings: Excellent, Good, Okay, and Needs to Improve. Food inspectors look at food safety practices – such as handwashing, keeping foods at the right temperature, and staff training – during each inspection. The rating takes information from several inspections into account to reflect a business’s food safety practices over time rather than relying on just a single inspection.
You can get more information on our website about our food safety rating system. You can also check our database of food business safety ratings to learn how businesses have done in inspections.
