MANHATTAN — When it comes to city restaurants, it apparently pays to get good grades.
A new survey by the Department of Health showed that a third of city restaurant owners saved a combined $3 million in fines by earning “A” grades when inspected in the last six months.
The study — released on the first anniversary of the implementation of the letter-grading system for restaurants — found that 8,000 eateries had fines waived after the city committed not to charge restaurants for sanitary violations if they earned an “A” on either their initial or follow-up inspections.
Currently, 69 percent of graded restaurants in the city have received an “A” grade, according to the Health Department.
“On this one-year anniversary of restaurant grading, I am proud to say that the system is working for customers and for restaurants,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement Monday, noting that he promised to relieve the fines in his January State of the City Address.
Other data in the study, conducted by Baruch College, showed today that 40 percent of restaurants received an “A” grade on their initial inspections, up from 27 percent at the 6-month mark.
Additionally, 38 percent of eateries that received “B” grades on their initial inspections received “A” grades on their re-inspections, while 72 percent that received “C” grades on their initial inspections received “A” or “B” grades on their re-inspections.
A year into the new program, 69 percent of restaurants inspected citywide have received “A” grades, 15 percent have received “B” grades, 4 percent have received “C” grades and 12 percent are pending, the study said.
The survey added that 70 percent of New Yorkers notice the grades posted at restaurant entrances, and 65 percent use the grades to help them decide where to eat all or most of the time.
“We had two goals with letter grading: to give customers information that they want as they make their dining choices and to provide an incentive for restaurants to achieve the best food safety practices,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley in a statement.
“The survey results and the inspection results tell me that we are making progress toward both of those goals.”
