Food Trucks May Get Graded, Too

Bad restaurant letter grades had some Brooklyn residents , but can the same grading standards apply to food carts.

The New York Post reports that State Senator José Peralta, D-Queens, is introducing a measure this week that would require local health departments to create a letter-based grading system for outdoor food vendors. Currently, the City does not publish online inspection results for carts and trucks.

“Consumers should know if what they are eating meets certain safety standards,” Sen. Peralta told the Post. “If they have an ‘A,’ you’ll eat there. If they have a ‘C,’ maybe not.”

Inspections could give a boost or a dip to new trucks, like that parked on Washington Ave and Park Place this summer. And fines may impact whether or not the during the spring and summer.

Brick-and-mortar restaurants and cafes will surely be happy to see this new legislation pass, though, as they have had to abide by letter grades since their introduction in July 2010.

Irene LoRe, Executive Director of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District and owner of Aunt Suzie’s Restaurant (), over the summer, saying the mobile eateries take away business from restaurants that must pay high rents to stay in hip Brooklyn neighborhoods.

This is not the only obstacle food trucks are facing. Crain's reported Sunday on the many governmental hurdles truck owners must jump over in order to stay in business.

And over in Carroll Gardens,

Ima started her truck business in 2007, and signed the lease for her lower Court Street shop "before the city began chasing trucks out of metered parking spaces—or before she knew how limited her cash flow would become," according to Crain's.

“Would I open a truck business today?” she asked Crain's. “There's no way. I'm doing everything I can to keep this thing afloat.”