Street eats are about to get grades.
The city’s Health Department announced Friday that all 5,500 food carts and trucks authorized to operate in the Big Apple will be getting the same “A,” “B” and “C” sanitary grades given out to restaurants.
“Letter grades on food carts and trucks will help New Yorkers see how these businesses fared on their latest inspection, right when they want to place an order,” said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot.
“Just as diners appreciate letter grading in restaurants, we expect this program to be popular among customers of food carts and trucks.”
The new system will launch in December.
Since the carts and trucks are mobile, the Health Department plans to attach GPS devices on them all so they can be located for inspections.
Matthew Shapiro, the legal director of the Street Vendor Project, said the group supports the grades but vehemently opposes the GPS tracking system — because it fears it could be used to target illegal immigrants.
Data collected will only be accessible to Health Department staff, the agency said in a preemptive move to head off privacy issues.
It will take two years for all the grades to be awarded, similar to the rollout of restaurant grading in 2010.
Street food vendors already get inspected and are subject to fines. But unlike eateries, they don’t have to display the results.
“I believe that the customers who buy food from a street vendor deserve to have the same ability to make an informed decision as do patrons of restaurants,” said City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens), who was the prime sponsor of the bill that led to the new law.