COLUMBIA, S.C. — Eat out much? You'll soon have an easy way to see the inspection history at any restaurant in South Carolina.
The food-grade decals at all restaurants in the state will soon feature a QR code, which will allow customers to see how their favorite places are doing in the kitchen.
"That site has two different parts, a maps part, and there is an advanced search part and what that allows people to do is to view inspection reports for the last 3 years of a restaurant," said South Carolina Department of Health Director of Food & Lead Risk Assessment Sandra Craig. "This QR code on the grade, what we discovered was people didn't really know about the site."
"The inspection report does list anything we found out of compliance and it might have some notes in there as well about things they've done to correct it," Craig said. "Sometimes things are corrected before we left the facility. I think it's important when you look at inspections to look at more than one, you know, look at the history. Are they chronically having problems? Or maybe they were just having a problem just for one day."
It's an option available online already. Adding it to the door will make it easier for people to find.
"It's definitely something we would look at every time, everyplace," said Kershaw County resident Babette Lovejoy.
We informed Lugoff House of Pizza & Subs of the upcoming change, and it's one they support.
"I think it's a very good idea. You know everybody thinks a restaurant business is just a cooking. You know it takes a very good time for cleaning up, that's what we do all the time. It has to be clean. If it's not clean, it's not a restaurant," said store manager Hossam Naama.
The changeover has already begun at some restaurants across the state, and DHEC hopes to have the new code within all restaurants in the next year.