public health inspection signs as potential search seeds

This is a provocation.

Speculative design?

This ppost was inspired by thinking about search seeds and seeking a 'material sign' that might be made searchable—and building on some other food & pathogen related musings on search (TK).

If not a QR code, perhaps you could take a photo and be led directly to the report through something like [Google Lens](https://lens.google/) or [Apple's Visual Look Up](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213088). What processes do these companies currently go through as they consider which features to support? Does "societal relevance" [@sundin2021relevance] play a role? Or some recognition of "the corporate responsibility to respect human rights" [@unhrc2011guiding]?

Such an aggregated search is somewhat complicated in the United States by such inspections being managed at the local level (though an app, HDScores, claims to have "built a database that covers 73% of the entire United States"[^what?]).[^askew]

See [ tags:speculative ]

See @dunne2013speculative, @wong2017real, @fox2019vivewell, & @mulligan2019technology.

Asides

I imagine this is relatively well-trod ground?

@park2022certification:

Restaurant hygiene quality grades influence customers' decisions and improve restaurateurs' efforts to maintain hygiene quality (Bhuvanesh, 2021; Filion & Powell, 2009; Fleetwood, 2019; Grunert, 2005; Henson et al., 2006; Shahid and Whisson, 2012; Silver et al., 2021). The Korean government, of course, gives a “hygiene grade certificate,” which is a valuable indicator of restaurant sanitation for customers. Customers consider the hygiene certificate when deciding where to visit since it is highly linked to food-borne illness. As a consequence, the significance of the hygiene certificate is clear.

@awasthi2021food:

Food inspector rankings are hailed as an outstanding example of combining mandated disclosure with consumer decision making (Fung, Graham, & Weil, 2007). Ben-Shahar and Schneider (2011) also opine that inspector hygiene rankings stand apart as a noteworthy public safety alternative. It is important to note that such rankings have significant ‘last mile’ touchpoints, wherein the end-user, i.e., consumer perception and subsequent behaviour is critical in the success of such policy intervention.

I have done minimal searching on this ppost, ex.: g[health inspection signs restaurant posted].images

g[[restaurant safety ("health inspection" OR "public health") (sign OR grade OR rating OR certificate) site:wikipedia.org]](https://www.google.com/search?q=restaurant+safety+%28%22health+inspection%22+OR+%22public+health%22%29+%28sign+OR+grade+OR+rating+OR+certificate%29+site%3Awikipedia.org)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety > Regulations by jurisdiction and agency > United States > State and local regulation

Restaurants and other retail food establishments fall under state law and are regulated by state or local health departments. Typically these regulations require official inspections of specific design features, best food-handling practices, and certification of food handlers.[66][67] In some places a letter grade or numerical score must be prominently posted following each inspection.[68] In some localities, inspection deficiencies and remedial action are posted on the Internet.[69] In addition, states may maintain and enforce their own model of the FDA Food Code. For example, California maintains the California Retail Food Code (CalCode), which is part of the Health and Safety Code and is based on most current and safe food handling practices in the retail industry.[70] It has been argued that restaurant hygiene ratings, though useful at times, are not informative enough for consumers.[71]

[Shad Snell's local news report from Utah: "Why aren’t health inspection scores displayed in Utah restaurants? Here’s why"](https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/why-arent-health-inspection-scores-displayed-in-utah-restaurants-heres-why/)

According to the Salt Lake County Health Department, the only official source for Salt Lake County Health Department inspection information is the ”Inspection Reports” button on the website.

Perhaps this search seed question is relevant here? Though I imagine penalties for fraudulent certificates would generally be deterrent enough?

How do the scores play out on search tools like Google Maps and Yelp?

Jessica Yadegaran's report in The Mercury News: "Yelp’s new health scores don’t mean what you think they do"

...HDScores, the tech company working with Yelp, uses a proprietary algorithm to create a score.

Glynne Thompson, chief marketing officer of HDScores, would not disclose the methodology used, calling it “proprietary and quite complex,” but explained that each restaurant inspection is assigned a score based on the number of demerits. The lower the number of demerits, the cleaner the restaurant.

[ . . . ]

Yelp considers the program, dubbed LIVES [or Local Inspector Value-Entry Specification], a boon for public health and a nudge for jurisdictions to update their public records in a timely fashion. “The target of Yelp’s sunlight is not only restaurants, but also city governments,” says Luther Lowe, Yelp’s head of public policy. “Why is the county of San Mateo taking nearly a year to re-inspect a restaurant?”

The county’s response? When a private technology company mines raw inspection data and converts it to a numerical score, it often leads to misinterpretation, said Diana Rohini LaVigne, chief communications officer for San Mateo County Health System.

yelp.com/healthscores, or LIVES provides this:

In 2012, Yelp partnered with the City of San Francisco and City of New York to develop the Local Inspector Value-Entry Specification (LIVES). LIVES is an open data standard which allows municipalities to publish restaurant inspection information to Yelp.

I don't know whether other folks are allowed to access LIVES data and move it or analysis on it off of Yelp. As of today, yelp.com/healthscores/feeds states that Yelp partners with Hazel Analytics: hazelanalytics.com/research

Hazel Analytics has its roots in academic research. For more than a decade, our co-founders have investigated food safety through the lens of consumer health, regulatory patterns, and retail merchant behavior. Today, we carry on that legacy of thought leadership in the form of industry whitepapers. The publications below offer a glimpse into the research that both draws upon Hazel's expertise in health inspection data and informs the ongoing development of our platform and products.

In April 2023, it became a part of ECOLAB:

...Ecolab acquired Hazel Analytics, a technology-driven public health company. Hazel Analytics now operates within the EcoSure division, further strengthening EcoSure’s capabilities help clients mitigate brand risk, and optimize guest experience and food safety.

I didn't find an example from my county, but there is a search tool: [ Snohomish County Health Department > Food](https://snohomishonline.envisionconnect.com/#/pa1/search).[^prosp]