After we aired our story on a restaurant which closed down due to rodents we've received several questions from you the viewer about restaurant grading. On Thursday we made it the topic of our "Holding Us Accountable" segment, and received more responses prompting us to take a closer look at this issue. 29-Eyewitness News found out what goes into letter grading. The viewer who contacted 29-Eyewitness News wanted to know why almost every restaurant seems to get an "A," and told us they've been to some restaurants with an A grade where they've seen roaches. We called Environmental Health and asked if we could see first hand what gives a restaurant a perfect score.

Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine, tells us "If there is an infestation or many insects clearly that presents more of an eminent risk that facility is closed and this most recent example here in Bakersfield where we took that action." Constantine is referring to the recent closure of Logan's Roadhouse, shut down by Environmental Health because of a rat infestation. But Constantine says while insects and rodents are a major concern, the most common cause for food borne illnesses are improper hand washing, cooling and heating of foods. So during inspections Environmental health uses thermometers to determine if food is outside of that danger zone either hot or cold. Since bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 ° and 140 °Fahrenheit, all food must be kept out of those temperatures.

29-Eyewitness News wanted to know what goes into an inspection, what's looked at and graded. I went to T.L. Maxwell's restaurant with Chief Environmental Health Specialist, Guy Shaw, who showed us what's involved in inspection. Shaw looks at all parts of the restaurant, under the oven, in the freezer, the dish washer, and even checked the ice machine. Shaw says they have to look everywhere to make sure the restaurant clears a long list of potential violations. The inspector goes down this list subtracting violations by either 5, 3, or half points from from a score of 100. Shaw says "Everybody starts with an "A," when I walk in the door everybody, as far as I am concerned, starts with an "A" and hopefully we don't have to take any points off." Then the total number of their violations minus 100 directly translates to their letter grade just like a test at school. So, back to our question about all restaurants in Kern County being straight "A" Eateries. We asked Constantine for the break down, to find out. Constantine tells us about 93-percent of restaurant's have "A"s, but that there have been a number of B's and a number of C's. He says since July there have actually been 6 facilities they've closed down because of bad inspections.

Constantine says their letter grading system has been evolving since they began last July. Coming up this summer they say they will re-evaluate the system to make sure it's working to keep customers safe.