On December 1st, new Georgia guidelines went into effect that seem to be cramping the styles of some restaurant’s inspection scores. They are:

1. No touching ready-to-eat foods with bare hands.
2. Letter, number grades.
3. Reports must be posted within 15 feet of an entrance, at eye level, and visible from 1 foot away.
4. Reports also must be posted on every drive-through window.
5. Within two years, existing restaurants must have a certified food safety manager on staff.

What does this mean?

1. Try not to think about what the previous rule was: Only touch ready-to-eat foods if they need a touchin’.
2. No more using arabic or chinese symbols for grades. Our focus groups say that can be confusing.
3. There will be no more putting the grade around the corner and behind the plants, which is a good thing. Still, if it’s not quite visible from 2 feet away, that seems to be okay. There’s a lot of runway on that one.
4. There’s going to be a lot of drive-offs once drivers place the order and reach the window, only to find out their taco meat is not on the honor roll.
5. This is actually pretty awesome. It doesn’t mean an entirely new position, but it does mean that someone on the staff has to have gone through a food safety course. Maybe having some safety classes would have been good for that woman at Spondivitz, a while back.