LA Yelp Listings Now Include Letter Grades, Health Code Violations
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Foodies in Los Angeles no longer need to drive all the way to a restaurant, only to become revolted by the C or D letter grade in the window.
Yelp is now including health violation information alongside its restaurant listing in Los Angeles and Chicago. The review site and app says they decided to stay with the feature because an improvement in health inspections were seen after trying it out in San Francisco.
"We started by posting health scores on restaurants across the country. Really that was instigated by the study in Los Angeles that found when restaurants post their letter grades in the windows of the restaurant, health improves," Yelp spokesman Vince Solitto said.
Any Yelp listing that serves food now includes the letter grade, any violations, and the dates of past health inspections.
"We said, 'how can we take that national and put it on our website so consumers can have better access to it?' Then we decided to go one step further and post warnings on the worst offending businesses due to hygiene in San Francisco," Solitto said. "That's worked very well, and so now we're going to take it to Los Angeles and Chicago, and hopefully beyond."
Yelp says they have now started to flag restaurants with the lowest one percent of heath scores in the city, and scores are updated daily as new inspection results are posted.