San Antonio Amends Food Code, Implements Letter Grade System

click to enlarge San Antonio Amends Food Code, Implements Letter Grade System
San Antonio Metro Health | Facebook
Starting in June, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District will issue voluntary ABC letter grade placards for restaurant inspections.

At Thursday's City Council meeting, Chapter 13 of City Code was updated to adopt new Texas Food Establishment Rules.

Metro Health says the letter grade system for inspections will be easier for the public to understand and improve transparency. The department is moving from a demerit scoring scale where "0" is considered perfect to a 100-point system where a perfect score is 100.

Restaurants will be able to voluntarily post an ABC grade placard issued by Metro Health starting June 1. And, no, you can't make your own placard if you fail. That's prohibited. 

Additional changes in code will allow farmer's markets to operate for two days a week per market per calendar month instead of one day a week; food establishments are no longer able to transfer licenses between locations; and all food service workers, regardless of position, will be required to obtain food handler training and certification, which can be obtained online at a cost of $8 to $20.

The food handler requirement is effective on October 1 and all other changes, excluding the placard system, are effective April 1.

Thoughts? Opinions? Send them to [email protected]

KEEP SA CURRENT!

Since 1986, the SA Current has served as the free, independent voice of San Antonio, and we want to keep it that way.

Becoming an SA Current Supporter for as little as $5 a month allows us to continue offering readers access to our coverage of local news, food, nightlife, events, and culture with no paywalls.

Join today to keep San Antonio Current.

Scroll to read more San Antonio News articles

Join SA Current Newsletters

Subscribe now to get the latest news delivered right to your inbox.