Official insights from Public Health – Seattle & King County staff
Inspecting restaurants and other places where food is sold or served to the public.
It’s the holiday season, and that means FOOD! Whether you’re hosting a big group or bringing your famous side dish to a gathering, you want to make sure your food is both delicious and safe.
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The best way to protect yourself from foodborne illnesses when you’re eating out is to only buy food from businesses that have a food safety rating sign – the green smiley face signs. These signs mean that a business has a Public Health food permit, which is an important step in the process to make sure a business is safely serving food.
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As 2025 approaches, we have great news for food lovers across King County. Public Health’s popular food safety rating system – the green smiley face signs in restaurant windows – is expanding to include more food businesses.
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With over 10,000 restaurants in King County, Public Health’s Food Protection Program plays a critical role in monitoring and ensuring food safety. Part two of our three-episode podcast, Bridging the Gap, explores how environmental health shows up in our everyday lives.
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Their time in restaurants has given our investigators insight into a different question – are there any foods they avoid because of the risk of food borne illness? We asked a few of our inspectors and got all sorts of answers. That included plenty who said they didn’t avoid any types of food. For those inspectors who did avoid some foods, two trends emerged.
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We’ve recently received multiple reports of people getting sick with norovirus-like illness (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea) after eating raw oysters in restaurants.
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