About "Kitchen Cops"

The average family eats out at least twice per week. But are the people doing the cooking for you preparing your food as safely and cleanly as you would at home? Every Thursday during NewsChannel 3 at 6 and 11, and Friday on Good Morning Carolina, we help you keep track of the best and worst-scoring area restaurants with our "Kitchen Cops" reports.

We compile restaurant health inspection reports from county health inspectors. Based on the scores the inspectors give eateries, we report three categories on Kitchen Cops:

High Performer: Any restaurant or food stand that scores 99.5 or better on a health inspection. Getting extra credit for passing a food safety course, though, does not count toward being recognized for High Performer. For Example, if an eatery scores  97.5, but gets two points for passing a food safety class, its score of 99.5 is not enough to make the list. The best way to look at it is high performers have lost no more than half a point. Restaurants earning High Performer status are featured during NewsChannel 3 at 6 p.m.

Low Performer: Any restaurant or food stand that scores 87 or less on a health inspection. Low Performers can be seen on NewsChannel 3 at 11.

Regrade: Health inspectors give restaurants a chance to get a second inspection soon after receiving a low score to make changes and improve on their score. If a low performer receives a regrade, we'll feature that on NewsChannel 3 at 6 p.m.