Public Health To Roll Out Restaurant Placards

By Jan. 1, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District says it’s going to start issuing color-coded placards that restaurants must put up with details about health inspection results.

Based on the system, green placards mean restaurants are in compliance with the latest health inspection, yellow is for re-inspection required, and red stands for closed. Public Health Administrator Julie Pryde said her office is ready for the rollout.

“This is information that the public has been asking for for years,” Pryde said. “I do believe by having repeat offenders, people can make their own decisions. They need to look at it as if there’s a onetime issue, then that could just be a onetime issue. But if time after time after time they’re having the same types of problems, then the consuming public can decide if they want to eat there or not.”

This week, the Champaign County Board narrowly rejected a plan to expand the placards to all of Champaign County. That was after the Champaign-Urbana and Champaign County Boards of Health approved it.

Pryde added that public health still wants to post restaurant inspection results to its website, something that is only being done by the non-profit news organization, CU-CitizenAccess.