Forget “clean crabs.”
Health officials scrapped a plan to honor Baltimore’s cleanest restaurants with a decal of the Maryland crustacean for a Clean Crab Award.
Instead, a prize ribbon decal will recognize those with a solid record of sanitation for the Charm City Health Award for Excellence in Sanitation.
“[The crab] is a bottom-feeder, so it’s probably not a good image,” said Olivia Farrow, assistant commissioner of the environmental health division of the Baltimore City Health Department.
Health officials announced the revamped award last week after a public comment period during which residents and the Restaurant Association of Maryland rejected the Clean Crab Award idea.
Restaurants must have passed all food inspections in the previous year with no pest infestation violations or critical violations, such as failing to have proper refrigeration or ensuring all food workers wash their hands.
The Health Department will also give out the Charm City Health Award for Nutritional Information to recognize those that provide nutritional information. Restaurants must conspicuously display the calorie, fat, carbohydrate and sodium content for all entrees.
“We are just trying to alert the Baltimore public that it’s important to know what you are eating and the nutritional makeup of the foods you are eating,” Farrow said.
“It’s just to put this kind of information in the forefront and let [people] know.”
Many of the Restaurant Association of Maryland’s suggestions were incorporated into the award program, particularly that it remain voluntary, said Melvin Thompson, vice president of government relations for the association.
“We are very happy with the program,” he said.
“We hope these voluntary recognition programs will catch on throughout the state and eliminate the need for mandates” to disclose nutrition information, he said.
The Howard County Health Department has also been recognizing the healthiest restaurants through the Healthy Howard program. So far 25 restaurants have signed on for the honor, demonstrating they offer at least two healthy menu items — such as entrees with fewer than 750 calories and free of trans fat — and meet the environmental health standards.
“We really didn’t know what to expect, but we certainly want more and we are making an effort to do so,” said Dr. Peter Beilenson, Howard’s health officer.
“We hope it will be replicated.”
