Your neighborhood's most unsanitary grocery stores, mapped

By Virginia K. Smith | June 26, 2015 - 1:13PM

Happy Friday: Is your favorite (or only) neighborhood grocery store a vermin-infested germ factory? A gross—but informative—new interactive map courtesy of AM NY will help you find out just that, if you dare. (Spoiler: if you live in Brooklyn, which had the most violations of any borough, brace yourself.)

The paper pulled data from the New York Division of Food Safety and Inspection, and found that over the past year, 847 grocery stores had been cited for at least one violation. Of those, 56.6 percent had 10 or more violations for infractions like infested food, "insect, rodent, bird, or vermin activity" in the store that could lead to contamination; food stored at incorrect temperatures; and bathroom facilities being improperly installed.

There were 359 stores with violations in Brooklyn—by the far the most of any borough—with Manhattan coming in second place, with 152. So yes, play around with the map long enough, and you're likely to get some bad news.

But you also might find some good news. For instance, a Brick staffer (ahem!) learned that her neighborhood's best sandwich-making bodega isn't stellar when it comes to making employees wash their hands (blech), but on the flip side, the grocery store on her block where she once found kale covered in a white mystery fungus doesn't seem to have garnered any violations whatsoever. So you learn something new every day.

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