Scores and grades: a sampling of how college students and food safety professionals interpret restaurant inspection results.

Controversy surrounds the use of posted restaurant inspection scores and grades. There is much debate about how well a score or grade conveys risks to potential diners, and questions remain about how the public interprets posted scores and grades, regardless of how they are derived. To determine how such scores and grades are perceived, the authors surveyed a sample of Maryland college students and food safety professionals about what a posted inspection score of 86 means and what a letter grade of C means. There was no clear consensus about the meaning of the scores and grades described in the surveys. The majority of respondents felt that a restaurant should be either open or closed, and that the public should not have to decipher the meaning of a posted sign. The response of the sample is especially significant given that many respondents claimed that they would not eat at a restaurant with either a posted letter grade of C or a posted score of 86. Although these results do not come from a random sample, they nevertheless suggest that the public has a limited understanding of such signs and, at the same time, bases dining decisions on them. Thus, environmental health professionals must carefully consider how the public can be better educated about signs, how the signs can be less ambiguous, and whether posted restaurant inspection results are even advisable in their current form.