BALTIMORE Health officials here have proposed a new incentive program to recognize restaurants that provide patrons with a sanitary dining environment and nutritional profiles of menu items, and it has local operators feeling, well, a little crabby.
Under the proposed program, restaurants with high scores on their health department inspections would be presented with an award called the Clean Crab, an image of a crab that the establishment could post by the door. Conversely, proponents reasoned, the absence of the decal would send a signal to patrons.
In addition, restaurants receiving Clean Crab awards also would be eligible to win Informed Crab honors by posting nutritional information, such as calories, fat grams and other details, for everything they serve.
Melvin Thompson, vice president of the Maryland Restaurant Association, said the concept is a good one, as long as the information is provided voluntarily, but he said the name is something less than desirable.
“People when they are a little upset can be crabby,” he told the Baltimore Sun. “It doesn’t really suggest something nice and pleasant about a place, the crab award. I just can’t imagine them sticking with this name, and I love crabs more than anyone in the state, probably.”
The health department, which is still working on the plan, is accepting feedback on it through July 1, but hopes to have it operational by January 2009.