Food trucks and food carts would get health department letter grades if a City Council member has her way. NY1's Rocco Vertuccio filed the following report.
Food trucks and carts are part of the city's landscape, serving just about everything, just about everywhere, morning, noon, and even late at night.
Aiden Toomey gets a smoothie from the same cart in Midtown every morning. He takes the cart's cleanliness for granted .
"You can see this one is pretty clean," he said.
Queens Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz introduced legislation Wednesday that would expand the Health Department’s letter grade system for rating restaurants to food carts and trucks.
It’s something the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group, has been seeking for years, saying customers have a right to know how the carts perform on their inspections.
"We do it with the restaurants. It's been very successful. I think we should do it with food carts also," Koslowitz said.
If approved, the vendors would need to post their A, B or C grades after their inspections, just like restaurants.
Food cart owner Bernardo Reyes supports the proposal. He says posting the grades would give customers a clear choice.
"If I have a nice letter A, you know, 'Oh wow, the guy is nice and clean. I believe he's the best one,'" Reyes said.
Felix Casarez agrees. He says the city already inspects his coffee, bagel and breakfast sandwich cart at least once or twice a year, and he always passes. He wants his customers to know that.
"These carts need to be treated like restaurants and respected like restaurants because sanitation is an important thing here," Casarez said.
Loyal customers say they would not be so loyal if they saw a B or C on their favorite food cart.
"Because cleanliness is such a big part of food when you serve to people," said Michel Geoffry, a food cart customer.
"I would like to know if they are clean," said Towanda Fuller, a food cart customer. "If they have an A, I would definitely keep coming ."
In 2015, state lawmakers proposed health letter grades for street food vendors, but the legislature did not approve it.