Health Concerns

Would Letter Grades Sap The Street Out of L.A. Street Food?

The food truck trend is drawing some heat to street-food vendors citywide, which will undoubtedly have repercussions for some of the more makeshift vendors we prefer to the newfangled mobile restaurants. While not shying away from the insulting term “roach coach” along the way, L.A. Times reports that Los Angeles County supervisors could be voting as soon as next week on whether mobile food vendors should be letter-graded, just as brick-and-mortar restaurants are. This could affect 10,000 vendors across the city, and will likely not be good news for anybody selling corner staples like oranges and fruta mixta, a service more culturally vital to L.A. than say, the Komodo truck. Obviously, letter grades would be a form of assurance to prospective food truck diners, but there’s something about the proposal that looks certain to increase regulation and potentially crush the “street” out of real L.A. street food.

Would you like to see letter grades on food trucks or do you hate the idea? Let us know your thoughts in our comments.

A drive to grade food trucks in L.A. County [L.A. Times]

Would Letter Grades Sap The Street Out of L.A. Street Food?