Sous Vide

  • People get sick; there’s a reason for HACCP plans

    Posted: April 21st, 2011 - 7:03am by Doug Powell

    This person sounds like a bad food safety manager.

    New York City’s Village Voice ran a piece about the paperwork being required by health types in the form of HACCP plans (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point).

    “… the plans require chefs to map out a convoluted strategy for avoiding foodborne pathogens in potentially dangerous cooking techniques…. Sous vide came under scrutiny and was even banned temporarily in 2006 while the health department decided how to regulate the newfangled method. … Now restaurants desiring to use the sous vide method must have an approved HACCP plan to do so.”

    Elizabeth Meltz, director of food safety and sustainability for the Batali Bastianich group, which includes Babbo, Del Posto, and food emporium Eataly, was quoted as saying,

    "There was one E. coli outburst from apple cider, and now there's a HACCP plan required to make it for mass consumption, too."

    Maybe the E. coli outburst Meltz was referring to was in Oct. 1996, when 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, Calif. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider --and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believe that some of the apples used to make the cider may have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces.

    Or maybe the outburst was in Maryland last year when seven people got sick drinking unpasteurized cider; three were hospitalized.

    Maybe the outburst was in Iowa, when eight were stricken with E. coli o157:H7 after drinking unpasteurized cider.

    Maybe it was one of the 31 other outbreaks of illness we’ve document linked to unpasteurized juices – primarily apple cider. The complete table with body count is available at
    http://bites.ksu.edu/fresh-juice-outbreaks.
     

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    Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    Cider, food safety, Haccp, Illness, new york, policy, Sous Vide, unpasteurized
  • Sous vide is not for amateurs; NYC shuts Fatty ‘Cue after it gets 115 violation points

    Posted: April 7th, 2011 - 4:39pm by Doug Powell

    Fatty ‘Cue, an apparently popular Asian barbecue restaurant in Brooklyn, has been shut down by the city health department after it rang up 115 violation points in an inspection on Monday. (You need less than 14 points to get an A, less than 28 to get a B.)

    According to The New York Times, some of the violations were due to improper sous vide and home canning procedures. But the restaurant was also cited for having evidence of rats and mice. The report also cited “hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.”

    Also, food was “not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service” during the inspection.

    Note: Fatty 'Cue reopened after passing inspection Thursday afternoon.

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    Restaurant Inspection  |  0 Comments
    fatty 'cue, food safety, new york, restaurant inspection, Sous Vide
  • Sus vide cooking is safe if you follow a plan

    Posted: July 27th, 2008 - 5:41am by Doug Powell

    The New York Times reported last week that in 2006,

    “the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspected restaurants using the sous vide method, in which food is vacuum-sealed in plastic for slow cooking at low temperatures. Because of concerns about bacteria growth in the sealed pouches, restaurants were told to stop using vacuum-sealing machines until they filed plans detailing their processes. … Afterward, restaurants like Blue Hill, Per Se and WD-50 filed sous vide plans that were approved by the city as officials developed formal regulations.

    “In March the Board of Health approved those regulations. They require restaurants that cook sous vide to have an approved Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan. …

    “Some chefs say the health department is overzealous in its regulation of sous vide, which is safe when properly practiced. But others agreed with officials who said it was important that correct procedures were clearly followed, because anaerobic bacteria can thrive in the airless environment of a vacuum bag if techniques are not done properly.

    “Sous vide, which means ‘under vacuum’ in French, refers to a technique where foods are vacuum-sealed to carefully calibrated degrees of pressure so they can be suffused with flavors in a marinade or submerged in temperature-controlled water baths. …

    “Bruno Goussault, the chief scientist at Cuisine Solutions, an industrial sous vide company, was one of the developers of sous vide and has trained many famous chefs in the technique. He said that he understood the need for health department oversight and that he consulted with the city to help draft the regulations. …

    “It’s very easy to work with the top chefs, but when you are making regulations you need to take care of all the chefs, not just the top chefs,” Mr. Goussault said. “Perhaps sometimes it’s excessive, too much regulation for the top chefs, but I think it’s necessary.”
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