Calif. county adds bar codes to restaurant inspection grades

The environmental health division of Kern County Public Health has begun including quick-response, or QR, bar codes on restaurant inspection letter grade placards. When scanned by special readers, QR codes can spew out content to display screens or, using a software application, can direct mobile browsers to specific websites.

In the case of letter grades at a small but growing number of Kern County restaurants, such as Tahoe Joe’s Famous Steakhouse in Bakersfield, Calif., consumers with camera phones and QR-reading software can navigate to the health inspection report area of the health services department’s website.

Matt Constantine, the county’s director of public health, said Friday that placards with QR codes have only been available for three days. He said the county sees them as way of increasing access to information that can help consumers make informed decisions about where to dine.

“I believe it puts power in the hands of the customer and provides an economic incentive to the operator or business to achieve high standards,” he said.

Currently, users of the QR codes, once at the county website, must enter the name of the restaurant to see a report. But Constantine said his department is exploring cost-effective ways to customize the pre-printed letter grade placards so that QR codes leading to specific inspection reports can be added, such as through the use of adhesive labels with unique codes.

Because Kern County restaurants are required to keep a copy of their latest inspection reports on site for review by anyone who requests it, the addition of QR codes to letter grades is being taken in stride by some operators.

“We haven’t had any guest responses [to the technology] that we’re aware of,” said Greg Graber, president of 10-unit, Fresno, Calif.-based Tahoe Joe’s. “A majority of our guests won’t use it, but a few might.”

Graber, whose chain’s Bakersfield restaurant scored an A on its most recent inspection, added: “The good news is if people are scanning [the QR code], that means they are at our front door, and we’re happy about that.”

Tahoe Joe’s is a wholly owned subsidiary of Buffets Holdings Restaurants Inc. of Eagan, Minn., parent of the Old Country Buffet and HomeTown Buffet chains.

Though QR codes have been popular in Japan for many years — McDonald’s restaurants there have used the graphic panels on food wrappers to send consumers to a website with nutrition information, for example — their use by major restaurant companies in the United States only goes back about three years.