Consumers can now check the Danish Food Administration’s quality control database via the Internet and see how restaurants, groceries, bakeries, and other retailers rank on a four-icon scale from frown to broad smile.


The smiley faces indicate a scale from administrative fines to a perfect inspection and ranks retail enterprises. The database, which includes about 200,000 control results on 46,000 businesses, can be searched by business name or type, address and location. Reports on 4,000 wholesalers are also available, though not tagged with smileys.


According to a new Nielsen survey, the initiative is hugely popular with both consumers and businesses and fully 83% of the ranked services felt they had received a fair rating.


Businesses can request – and pay for – new inspections if they feel their improvements qualify for a better face.


“Now you can inspect a restaurant from home, before making a reservation. This is an option I will be using, and in the future only choose restaurants with a broad smile,” said Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mariann Fischer Boel.

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