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Grade drift

The LA “A” is getting harder to hold

The share of restaurants that didn't earn an A, by year. It has climbed every year.

2%4%6%2.9%20233.2%20244.7%20256.4%2026*

Below-an-A went from 2.9% in 2023 to 4.7% in 2025. But the median score held at 95 the whole time. So the middle isn't getting worse, the bottom of the A is falling out: restaurants sitting at 90 to 92 are slipping under the line into B.

Tie that to the cliff. The huge pile of restaurants sitting exactly on 90 is fragile. A small tightening drops thousands of them from an A to a B.

* the latest year is partial. Every number here comes from the LA County Department of Public Health inspection record. We translate the record; we don't change it. Cleanplate is not affiliated with or endorsed by the county.

More from the data: all Cleanplate findings