City Council Considers Letter Grades For Food Carts

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The New York City Council is considering a bill that would require street food vendors to display letter grades from the health department, just like restaurants.

City health officials began issuing letter grades to restaurants on sanitary inspections in 2010.

Food carts are also inspected and subject to fines, but the vendors don't have to display the results. Inspectors check the street carts for food safety, facility maintenance, personal hygiene and other checkpoints.

"They are inspected, not often, they should be inspected more often," said the bill's sponsor, Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens).

Koslowitz said the bill would help reassure customers that their favorite food cart complies with sanitary regulations.

"We want to make sure that people know what's inside the cart that they're purchasing their food from," Koslowitz said.

She insists letter grades on carts would be good for the street vendors and their hungry customers.

Spero Sikavaras, who runs a food cart in Midtown, said he would welcome the letter-grade system.

"That's fine with me. Everything I get is fresh, everything is good, not a problem. I wouldn't mind it at all," he said. "It'd be a good thing because it'd make people see that we have fresh stuff and you can come and get our stuff daily."