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LOUISVILLE, KY – Max Balliet’s Holy Mole food truck has been inspected six times this year, passing the health department review without fail.

Still, he hears the uninformed slights and innuendo — food trucks are dirty, messy, fly-by-night grease pits, potential salmonella breeders on wheels.

That’s why nobody is happier than Balliet that Louisville is now requiring the city’s 49 registered food truck vendors to post health grades in their windows.

“Being able to display our score is a good thing,” he said Monday. “Right now there’s no way for us to prove we’ve been inspected at all.”

Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness has always required food trucks to follow the same health regulations as restaurants. But, until now, they haven’t had to participate in the ABC Food Placard Program, the system that displays brightly colored letter grades based on cleanliness and food handling.

The grades range from an A, meaning the food vendor meets all the state requirements and has no critical violations, to a C, indicating the facility doesn’t meet code and must have a follow-up inspection.

The public should expect to see placards on food trucks during the next several months, as food inspectors make their regular rounds, city officials said.

The growing popularity of food trucks — the city only had three in 2006 and has added 12 more this year —

Find the entire article by Mark Boxley at The Courier-Journal  <here>