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To encourage safe food handling in restaurants, Pennsylvania should look to the method employed five years ago in the Big Apple. (MCT file photo)

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture should follow New York City’s lead in publicly grading the cleanliness of local restaurants.

If the New York model is followed, restaurants in Northeastern Pennsylvania would be required to display their grades in windows or on doors for passers-by and patrons to see.

What was derided then as overregulation – and fought against by restaurant owners – has resulted in some encouraging results. Earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported:

• Nearly 60 percent of the city’s restaurants now get an A grade, up from 37 percent when public grades began five years ago.

• Instances of salmonella cases fell by nearly 25 percent between 2010 and 2014.

• Mice sightings in kitchens fell by 18 percent in that same period.

• Violations in inadequate hand-washing facilities, unsanitary equipment and food being kept at improper temperatures also fell.

New York’s system grades restaurants from A to C. Restaurants that get an A grade mean they are in compliance with food-safety regulations. Restaurants that get a C grade and don’t remedy their errors are shut down, much like restaurants that consistently fail their health inspections.

That’s our only gripe with New York’s method: In education, a C means you’re doing an OK. In restaurant inspections, a C means you should be closing your doors.

Should Pennsylvania consider a system like this, it might want to adopt a more traditional A, B, C, D and F grading system. That would also address concerns of area restaurant owners who say printed restaurant inspections don’t provide a full picture of cleanliness.

In the current model, some restaurant inspections give an appearance that a kitchen has done a miserable job, with a litany of problems noted. But if those problems are all relatively minor, and they are addressed while the inspector is still there, the restaurant still could earn a satisfactory rating. In contrast, a restaurant with half the number of infractions could get an unsatisfactory rating if those problems compromise public health.

Restaurant grades cut through that nuance and provide an at-a-glance rating for potential patrons. Pennsylvania would be wise to adopt such a system.