'Yikes, the health inspector's here!'

A new platform from a former NYC inspector digitizes compliance, practice, and understanding for restaurants

Over two decades ago, Andy Jean-Jacques joined the New York City Health Department as a health inspector. When walking into a restaurant, he says, “I didn’t get greeted with open arms.”

That’s putting it lightly. New York’s inspectors arrive with a 100(ish)-point checklist full of details and nuance, checking everything from food temperature to signage to hand-washing and plumbing. It’s… a lot. (Jean-Jacques eventually pivoted to restaurant consulting, almost certainly warming his welcome.)

“A lot of times, especially when people are not prepared, they’re nervous about this authoritative figure coming into their kitchen — especially if they’re struggling,” he says.

Recently, Jean-Jacques built and launched a tech platform to help restaurants prepare. RiA, or Restaurant Inspection Assistant, helps restaurants prepare for inspections by creating custom workflows for employees. Health inspections become far less stressful when restaurants are armed with accurate and actionable information, he says, and a tech platform makes all of this information interactive and easy to understand.

New York restaurants can expect a visit from the health department at least once a year if they’re compliant, or more frequently if an inspector uncovers a problem or a diner complains. A restaurant can be penalized for food not held at the proper temperature, an improperly mixed cleaning solution, or a leaky boiler in the basement. We tend to hear only about the really bad cases — restaurants shuttered for rodent infestations, major e.coli outbreaks, spoiled food, other gross things we’d all prefer not to think about. (In the interest of public health and safety, I’m happy someone thinks about them.)

Health scores dolled out to restaurants by inspectors are public information. Yelp started adding these scores to its review pages over a decade ago, and plenty of apps and services tap official data to display a restaurant’s performance. In New York, letter grades: A, B, a terrifying C, have to be posted near the front door. These scores, like online reviews and ratings, help people choose where to dine.

I still don’t know enough about health codes and compliance beyond anecdotes and memes, but I do know restaurants work hard to comply. (I was once conducting an interview inside a restaurant’s kitchen when the health department came by, and even *I* felt nervous standing there. I think everyone involved was grateful they asked me to wear a hairnet.)

I recently talked to Jean-Jacques about all of this, including how the extremely unsexy bureaucratic business of health inspections has changed and why he decided to build RiA, which he plans to expand to more cities including Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami.

As always, our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Expedite: I have a lot of questions for a former health inspector, but what inspired you to create RiA?

Andy Jean-Jacques, RiA: “I used to teach science, so my background is education. I was a health department inspector for several years, doing compliance work with restaurants, issuing violations when the health code wasn’t followed. It showed me that a lot of restaurant operators weren’t fully prepared to have a health inspection. They used hope. Hope is not a plan. ‘I hope the inspector is not a bad inspector this time around,’ or ‘my friend told me they aren’t citing this thing this year,’ is not a plan. There was a gap in their knowledge and preparation.”

How have health inspections changed over the last 20 years?

AJJ: “It used to be a lot of paperwork, but now things like previous inspection reports are already in the computer that the inspector has. They can easily review violations from several years back to see how a restaurant’s been complying, and they can pull it up instantly. They can see patterns and records of fines. This means restaurant operators have to be even more prepared.”

In your experience, are there parts of the health code that a restaurant might understand or misinterpret?

AJJ: “The health code is, of course, written in English but the average person is not going to sit there and interpret the law to that degree. They might be able to completely understand it, but the jargon is not always clear, and there’s no standardization — one inspector might write you up for one thing and then five months later, a different inspector comes, ignores what the first inspector said, and cites the restaurant for something else. So now the operator is confused and they’re not sure what to do, what’s compliant, what’s lawful, what’s hearsay.”

It sounds like a great opportunity.

AJJ: “RiA is a tool that gives people reassurance, confidence, that an inspection will go well. There are plenty of generic checklists out there, but they weren’t explaining what to do. I’ve been in hundreds of kitchens, I know how to talk to people, how to teach them to create a system to help them understand and learn and stay in compliance. RiA is that system. An operator can train the staff, conduct an inspection using the app, and they’re going to do the same thing every time, creating good habits.”

How does a restaurant use it?

AJJ: “They enter information like name and location — so the app knows which health department’s regulations to use, they have nuance — and based on that, they configure the restaurant. Every restaurant is set up differently, there’s no generic layout. You can select the type of refrigerator you use, a meat walk-in, a fish refrigerator, your bar. If you’re a coffee shop, you can take a picture of your espresso machine, save it, and it becomes a part of your configuration template. This way, your checklist is created based on the items that you have, and you can start an inspection doing checklist items and consult with the AI if you’re not sure about something.”

What’s that like? A chatbot?

“Yes, a chatbot that’s been trained in the New York health code specifically, and it’ll expand, of course, as I scale to more locations. You can type in questions or speak to it, and it responds to guide you.”

How frequently do health codes and laws change?

AJJ: “The codes don’t change much but policies do, and that’s where people get tripped up.”

For example…?

AJJ: “For example, there was a point where after a restaurant applied for a permit, they had to wait 21 days to open. But no one really enforced it until a new director came in and said that if a place is open that didn’t wait for 21 days, shut them down. It wreaked havoc throughout the city. Even though it was written in the code, no one enforced it. I try to stay aware of everything that’s going on, any changes, and send that information to my clients. But imagine doing this at a larger scale where people are aware of what’s happening in real time.”

I love that this is a highly specific and specialized service built by someone with real experience on both sides of this relationship — restaurant and inspector. Why do you think having this very specific point solution — versus, say, compliance training as part of a larger program — is important for a restaurant?

AJJ: “I don’t want people to get lost in the sauce. If there is too much information, they become disinterested. Restaurants are dealing with a lot right now — delivery apps, POS systems, reservations… and that’s what’s up front, that’s popular. Compliance is unpopular, and isn’t necessarily focused on. That niche is what I felt like was missing. If an app gives you peace of mind from using it, it’s going to make a world of difference.”