The health department plans to make its own website easier to use and James Illig, chairman of the health commission, will soon come up with a series of proposals to help diners easily see a restaurant’s health score. In the meantime, Mission Loc@la has developed a map to allow you to explore the scores of restaurants according to your postal code. It includes health inspections carried out between September 2009 and September 2010.
Click on your postcode, wait for the map to load and the scores will appear categorized and coded.
How Scoring Works
Restaurants are measured on a scale of 1 to 100 for safety and cleanliness. Scores are calculated based on health code violations seen during routine and unannounced restaurant inspections. Violations can be considered high, medium, or low health risks, and a restaurant’s score is determined by the number of each type found.
Can’t find a restaurant?
The Department of Public Health’s goal is to regularly inspect all food establishments in San Francisco twice a year. Due to high labor turnover and budget cuts in recent years, the city is far from achieving this goal. In Mission Loc@l’s research, some restaurants had not been inspected for almost a year and a half.
Health Commission Chairman James Illig says he makes it a top priority for the department going forward. On October 12, he will propose a resolution for more transparency and control in the operations of the ministry. For information on a specific restaurant, search the Department of Public Health website.
About this data
This health inspection score data was provided to Mission Loc@l by EveryBlock. The map above covers all inspections conducted in San Francisco from September 2009 to early September 2010.
For the most up-to-date inspection results citywide, visit EveryBlock.
Produced and designed by Ashwin Seshagiri with cards by Fay Abuelgasim, JJ Barrow, Lisette Mejia and Lauren Rosenfeld
