Shanghai's food safety watchdog will add two-dimensional barcodes to its ubiquitous restaurant inspection notices so diners can have more information about an eatery's sanitary conditions, local media reported Tuesday.

The barcodes, which can be scanned with a smartphone, will give diners access to a restaurant's inspection records for the past year and discourage it from falsifying the notices.

Scanning the barcode will provide diners with information such as the date of the restaurant's last inspection, a list of reasons why it failed an inspection and the identity of its food supplier, according to the Shanghai Morning Post.

The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration did not disclose when it will start updating the inspection notices.

The notices are known for their smiley face grading system. According to the three-tiered system, a green smiley face means a restaurant has exceeded inspection requirements. A yellow face means the restaurant passed the inspection and a red frowny face means it failed.

Restaurants are required to post the notices in a visible location so customers can easily scan the barcodes, according to the report.

Last year, a Hantai Asia Restaurant in Xuhui district pasted a phony smiley face on its official notice to hide that it had failed its last inspection, the news portal eastday.com reported in March.

Restaurants and cafeterias on university campuses will be the first to receive the updated notices, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

The administration plans to launch its own smartphone application so diners can review a restaurant's inspection results before they even set foot inside.

Global Times