Yelp has started showing "Health Score Alerts" on business pages with the lowest health inspection scores.
The company, which launched the pilot program Wednesday, said it hopes to make health scores "easier to find and understand so people can make informed choices about safe places to eat." Currently, it is only available in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"The Health Score Alerts program is part of Yelp’s commitment to empowering and protecting consumers by surfacing important information on local businesses they typically can’t easily find," spokesperon Kathleen Yiu said in a statement.
The program is part of the company's LIVES program which started in 2013 as a way for Yelp users to display and see their hygiene inspection data.
Posting hygiene scores on Yelp's website led to a 12 percent decrease in purchase intentions for restaurants that city's determined having a poor score, according to a study after San Francisco's program launched.
With the new program, Yelp aims to alleviate the risk of food poisoning as part of its commitment to empower and protect consumers.
