Health Score Alerts are placed on the Yelp pages of restaurants and other dining establishments with the lowest recent health inspection scores for a given inspection jurisdiction (for example, a city or county) within the last six months. Restaurant health scores are based on
data we get from local health departments. Alerts are displayed on a business’s Yelp page during the six month time period, or until we receive updated inspection data showing that the business received a new score from local inspectors, bringing them out of the lowest percentile or letter grade in their inspection area.
These alerts help make sure consumers are aware when a restaurant has an extremely low health score and alert them of notable violations, including potentially high-risk hygiene concerns. This allows consumers to make more informed choices about where to eat and may reduce foodborne sickness. In fact,
a study in Louisville, KY found that Yelp's LIVES program saves lives. After evaluating businesses in the area, the researcher found that Yelp's restaurant hygiene score program "significantly reduced rates of severe food poisoning in Louisville," relative to the rest of the state.
Businesses cannot pay to have alerts removed from their page and they cannot remove alerts themselves. The only way to remove a health alert from a business page is to improve the underlying health department food safety score such that it is no longer among the lowest in the area. Depending on how fast the local government or our third-party partners provide new health inspection scores to Yelp, there could be some delay between the time the score is received and when Yelp is able to remove an alert and display the new score.
If your
score is incorrect or outdated, click or tap on the Health Score link from the Yelp business page where you'll find an email or website link.
If the health score information is sourced directly from your local health department (as indicated on the health score link), you'll need to contact them directly since that information is provided by them. If that information is correct on their health department's website and the concern is that the health inspection data Health Department Intelligence (HDI) provided us is inaccurate, then please contact HDI Analytics directly by email (
HDISupport@ecolab.com).
If you're unsure or have any other general questions or concerns, please contact us at
healthscores-support@yelp.com.
