What do those food safety emojis mean?

March 07, 2019 / 12:05 am

caption: Kelly Robersone of Simply Soulful in Madison Valley makes fresh lemonade as food inspector Mike Simpson inspects the restaurant's food safety handling practices.

Is it safe to eat at restaurants that don't have a perfect rating?

Restaurants in Seattle, in fact throughout King County have this green, grey and white poster in the front window with smiley face emojis on them. The posters are from the King County Public Health Department.

It’s nice to see the emojis with a big wide smile, but not all of the emojis are happy.

So what do you do in that scenario? This dilemma inspired a listener to ask SoundQs: “Recently my favorite Korean BBQ joint received a merely 'Good' rating — should I be worried?”

Listen to the episode by clicking the play button above or on your favorite podcast app. SoundQs is a weekly podcast where our KUOW reporters tackle questions submitted by our listeners.

Have a question about the Seattle region for us to answer? Drop it here:

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Deborah Wang
Contributing Reporter, Editor, & Host

Deborah is a contributing reporter, editor and host at KUOW. Since joining the staff in 2005, Deborah has done everything from political reporting to podcast hosting and is now serving as Interim News Director. She is an award–winning radio and television journalist whose career spans more than three decades.
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Ruby de Luna
Reporter

Ruby de Luna is a reporter with a focus on food and how it intersects with health, communities, and culture. She has also reported on health care, and immigrant communities.
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