Horse meat increasingly on the menu in Florida
I still miss my hockey friend Steve. His tales were – and still are -- so outrageous, his job with the provincial government so boring, and his life with four kids on the farm near Guelph so … comical?
I know he misses me because he can’t find reliable goaltending – and the faculty team hasn’t won the annual tournament since my shattered nerves backstopped the team to victory in 2005, despite Naylor’s total lack of defense.
He was defense in name only.
At one point Steve and his wife had 19 horses. He used to say that it started out, every time they had another kid, the wife got another horse.
Steve had four kids, not 19.
He’s been cutting back on the horses over the past few years, but not in the way they are doing it in Florida,
Today’s USA Today reports that South Florida is seeing a jump in the horse meat market as restaurants quietly serve up the illicit fare, butchers provide it to trustworthy customers and police officers find slaughtered horse carcasses on roadsides.
At least 17 butchered horse carcasses have been found in Miami-Dade County this year, the highest annual number ever recorded in the county and the year is not over, said Detective Edna Hernandez.
Richard "Kudo" Couto of the South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. – and I have no idea why his handle is Kudo -- said there has long been an underground market for illicit horse meat, mostly in the rural areas of South Florida. In recent years, sales have become more widespread, he said.
He said some butchers in Miami have stolen frozen horse meat in their stores for trustworthy customers. Sometimes the meat is sold in neighborhoods out of coolers.
Nose stretcher alert: Whole Foods explains why it stopped selling raw milk in Florida
Whole Foods Market has terrible food safety advice, blames consumers for getting sick, sells raw milk in some stores, offers up fairytales about organic and natural foods, and their own CEO says they sell a bunch of junk.
Whole Foods in Florida has officially dropped raw milk from its shelves. Until Thursday, Whole Foods market sold raw milk with a pet food label. Human drinkers bought it for their personal consumption.
During an interview published yesterday by the Miami New Times, Russ Benblatt, Whole Foods regional marketing director for Florida, said,
“This was a decision that was made here at the regional level. I can't get into too many details, but it was purely a business decision to stop selling the raw milk, and I can't get into the specifics of it. … We made a decision to stop selling it as a pet food. We've never sold it for human consumption. … We're a grocery store we try not to get involved in politics. … If we're involved in politics then I'm not aware of it. We're not involved in any lobbying or political action committees in the state of Florida.”
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Just a grocery store. Uh-huh. There isn’t a foodie cause Whole Foods wouldn’t embrace to peddle a few more dollars worth of crap.
Not so sunny findings in the Sunshine State's grocery stores
South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed hundreds of thousands of grocery store inspection reports between 2005 and 2008 and found a 22 per cent increase in food safety violations.
About one in five food retailers failed at least one inspection from 2005 through July 1 of this year, and some failed as many as nine, the reports showed.
Vermin infestations rose 35 percent, with more than one in four stores having signs of rodents or roaches last year…A growing number of markets were cited for the high-risk practices of letting foods get too warm or too cool, employees coming to work sick or not washing their hands, and raw animal products contaminating other food.
John Fruin, chief of grocery inspections at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, explained the increase on a change in inspection format.
"There has been a shift in our inspection philosophy. We're looking harder for those things that are more apt to cause food-borne disease. And we're finding more."
The story continues,
No one contends food stores are a major health risk. Cases of consumers getting sick from food sold in grocery stores are rare. The large majority of supermarkets, convenience stores, bakeries, seafood shops and other retailers regulated by the state scored the highest ranking of "good" or passed with "fair" ratings, the reports show.
How anyone can contend that consumers don’t get sick from grocery stores is beyond me. Most cases of foodborne illness go unreported, and if they are reported it may be difficult to track the source back to a food retailer. Whether the increase in food safety violations at grocery stores translates to an increase in foodborne illness cases? Maybe, maybe not. I’m more interested in whether consumers want grocery stores to publicly display inspection scores like food service operations in many districts.
Raw seafood warning: Florida edition
As part of our search for decent seafood in Florida, Amy snapped this reminder of what is probably the most thorough food warning we’ve ever seen on a restaurant menu.
No idea whether people read these things.
Stick it in for safety
The first thing I bought when we arrived in Florida a couple of weeks ago was a meat thermometer: groceries, wine, toilet paper – and a digital, tip-sensitive meat thermometer.
Can’t cook burgers without them.
Yesterday I ventured from our Venice Beach hideaway to the University of Florida in Gainesville to hang out with my friend Michael Batz and deliver a seminar at the Emerging Pathogens Institute about food safety culture stuf.
Michael and I went to lunch at some Spanish/Cuban place that seemed quite friendly, so, being the nerd I am, I ordered a hamburger.
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The server asked me how I would like it, and I asked, what are my options?
She said however I wanted it (that’s really what she said).
I said, 160 F.
She said, we don’t do that.
I said, well-done.
Stick it in.
Awful-tasting Pepsi may have mouse inside
When her husband dumped out a can of Diet Pepsi that "tasted awful," Amy Denegri saw what looked like pink spaghetti spill out.
"We're not sure what it is...It's really sick," Amy said, though she suspects it may be a mouse.
According to WFTV Orlando, lab results from an FDA investigation of the incident will be available in one to two weeks.
When Pepsi learned of the incident, a spokesperson contacted the Denegri's. The can was traced to an Orlando bottling facility and a review of production logs showed "absolutely no evidence to suggest that any foreign object or substance entered the package at the time of production."
In addition, a statement was sent to WFTV Orlando, which reads in part:
"This is not the first time we have dealt with this type of claim. In every previous incident where lab testing has been conducted, the results have concluded that the specimen did not enter the package during production.
"That said, we treat all consumer claims very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. We have been in touch with the investigating authorities in this case. They are conducting laboratory tests to learn what may have happened here. We'll assist them however we can."
The Denegri's aren't planning a lawsuit. In fact, Amy's husband, Fred, is still drinking Pepsi. But he pours it into a cup first.
Eating beach sand can be messy - at both ends
When it gets hot in Kansas, we go to Florida.
We're leaving in a week, with a little work along the way before we settle into our rental on sexy Venice Beach, Florida. It’s the antithesis of places like South Beach, Miami, where celebrities flock and appearances rule. Venice – founded as a retirement community by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in the 1920s – is about as quiet as it gets.
With good beaches.
This year we’ll have 7-month-old Sorenne, and she’s starting to crawl (see below). If she can do this on hardwood, sand will be a breeze.
So we have to aware of sand in the mouth.
Besides the yuck factor, researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that digging in sand on beaches near water with high levels of fecal bacteria could be a risk factor for developing the drips.
For the study, reported in The American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers got contact information for more than 25,000 people visiting seven beaches within seven miles of sewage treatment plants.
About 10 days later, the researchers called and asked how they had spent their day at the beach and whether they had experienced problems like vomiting or diarrhea since then.
Those who dug in the sand, the study found, were significantly more likely to report having been sick — with those who had allowed themselves to be buried in the sand most affected. Children seemed to be at extra risk.
The best advice: wash your damn hands, especially before eating.
This isn’t the first time sand has been implicated in human illness.
In May, 2008, children's playgrounds on Sydney's northern beaches were closed after a rare form of salmonella normally linked to tropical fish made dozens of toddlers seriously ill.
Doggie dining update: seems to work in Sarasota
Amy and I have developed a habit of going to the Sarasoto/Venice Beach area on Florida’s Gulf coast.
Especially in August.
It’s just too hot in Kansas.
We won’t be taking the dogs this year but we probably will in the future.
According to this update in the Herald Tribune, Florida authorized local governments to create doggie dining in 2006, and Sarasota and Manatee counties enacted ordinances in 2007.
Since then, the concept has taken off in Sarasota, where no major problems have been reported.
Sarasota has 14 eateries that have obtained a license to allow dogs to join their humans while eating at outdoor restaurant dining areas.
Some established restaurants, like Mattison's City Grille in Sarasota, have set aside entire sections specifically for diners with dogs. …
Rules require hand sanitizer to be available for patrons, and restaurant staff are prohibited from touching the pets while working. Any "accidents" must be promptly cleaned up.
This seems entirely sensible, as long as the rules are followed and yahoos kept to a minimum.
And I can't decide whether it’s doggie dining or doggy dining.
Florida woman assaulted at church with cucumber
Cucumbers should be used as vegetables, or even conversation starters like in this scene from the movie, Animal House (right).
But a Lee County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office report says that during a food giveaway at the Lehigh Christian Church, a 33-year-old woman was struck with a cucumber by another woman after an argument over which free food belonged to which woman.
The church asked both women to leave.
McNuggets are not a 911 emergency
In yet another example of America’s slide toward Idiocracy, a Florida woman called 911 after paying for 10 Chicken McNuggets and told that no deep-fried chicken bits were available and would she like something else because all sales are final.
She called 911 three times.
"This is an emergency, If I would have known they didn't have McNuggets, I wouldn't have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don't want one. This is an emergency."
Once police arrived, the woman told police,
"I called 911 because I couldn't get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets.”
The police report states the woman,
"maintained the attitude 'this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency.'"
And why do these food-related 911 calls keep recurring in Florida?
Man dialed 911 when lemonade ran out
Have Americans become so self-absorbed they have to call 911 when food is not to their liking?
First it was a dude in Jacksonville, FL, who called 911 because he didn’t like the way his Subway sandwich was prepared. He could have just called Jared.
Last year, someone called 911 because she couldn’t get a cheeseburger.
On Friday, a man in Boynton Beach, FL, was arrested and charged with abuse of 911 communication after calling to complain that a local Burger King in did not have any lemonade.
If I was going to call 911 on Burger King it’d be related to that mascot that looks like a creepy Thunderbirds-clone
Roaches, slime may force Szechuan Panda in Gainesville to close
Yes, Mr. Kang, Chinese food can be cooked to food safety regulations.
The Gainesville Sun reports that a Florida judge has recommended shutting down the Szechuan Panda Chinese Restaurant for repeated health violations that were not corrected over several inspections between December 2007 and March of this year.
Administrative Law Judge Ella Jane Davis issued the recommended order Nov. 19 after an Aug. 5 hearing for owner Yu Zeng Kang to dispute a complaint filed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Division of Hotels and Restaurants.
Daniel Fulton, senior sanitation and safety specialist with the division, inspected the restaurant five times between Dec. 19, 2007, and March 30, 2008. He reported repeat violations that included live roaches in food preparation and food service areas, dead roaches throughout the building, food stored at improper temperatures, an "unidentified slime" growing in a food container, food stored directly on the floor and improper utensils used to handle food.
According to the judge's order, Kang responded through an interpreter that most of the violations were because "Chinese cooking was not conducive to meeting the regulations."
Kang also testified that dead roaches were swept out every night, however the judge noted that those found the following morning remained until the nightly cleaning, the order said.
Food safety infomercials still suck
I got up at 4:45 a.m. Sunday.
Just habit, how I roll, watching No Country for Old Men in the background, which really does improve with repeated viewings, like most Coen brothers movies.
While scouring the Internet I came across probably the worst infomercial ever. Bill Marler, your competition ain’t going to be knocking down the doors any time soon.
This Florida law firm has its own Internet infomercial. I’m thinking Dan Ackroyd selling a Bass-o-matic.
“What kind of bacteria do you hear about?
The most common is the E. coli virus.
The E. coli virus was linked to Taco Bell shredded lettuce …
Another bacteria that can cause foodborne illness is the salmonella virus.”
Douche alert: Lawyer host -- even I got my hair cut. And telling viewers to “shop at places with reputable reputations” is not a real mastery of the English language.
Condom found in meat in Florida
WCTC reports that Patricia Gibson says she bought a package of meat from an IGA food store in Quincy, Florida, on Wednesday, and on Saturday afternoon when she opened the package, she found a condom embedded in her container of packed pigs feet.
After family members agreed, Gibson called the manager of IGA, and told him what she'd found.
She says the manager asked her "what he was supposed to do about it?"
Angry, Gibson called the Havana Police Department.
"This, that's a serious health issue. I mean, what if people are buying other packages of meat, and something like that's ground up in it? That's not right. That's disgusting."
The manager of IGA says pigs feet are packaged in house, but he says there's no way a condom could be in his meat, saying he is certain his employees are not engaging in any sexual activity in the meat department.
Havana police secured the evidence at Gibson's home in Havana, and told her to contact the Health Department so the state may do a thorough investigation of IGA's food preparation.
Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body
That’s the name of an exhibit set to open yesterday at the South Florida Science Museum and expected to topple previous attendance records.
The Palm Beach Post reports The exhibition is based on a series of books by science teacher Sylvia Branzei whose research found that the average person swallows a quart of snot per day.
Other features of the exhibit include:
• guess the correct sequence of events that sets off barfing at the Vomit Center;
• match horrible odors to their correct source at Y U Stink;
• learn how vibrations of skin around the anus create a fart sound at Toot Toot; and,
• scale a 12-foot wall of pimples, warts and other skin blemishes.
Jennifer Cooper, a science educator at the museum, said,
"This is kind of a learning-in-disguise exhibit. They're learning without feeling like they're learning."
And you wonder why we call it barfblog.
Doggie dining, handwashing and Hurricane Fay
Looks like I picked the wrong week to come to Florida.
Actually we didn’t. Our most excellent holiday has been extended thanks to Tropical Storm or Hurricane Fay, which is scheduled to hit us in Florida first thing tomorrow morning. Everything has been canceled, including all flights out of Tampa.
So we’re riding it out.
Amy has been here a couple of times with friends, and my grandfather had a place in nearby Englewood, Florida, for decades. So we are both used to escaping Kansas heat by going to Florida in Aug. when it is completely dead. And Venice – founded as a retirement community by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in the 1920s – is about as quiet as it gets.
As part of our hurricane preparation, Courtlynn, Amy and I went to the Sarasota aquarium today. After petting the stingrays and others in the fish petting zoo, Amy and Courtlynn dutifully washed their hands in the politically correct handwashing station, which has a sign that says,
“Dryers are provided for an environmentally-conscious choice.”
Handwashing needs soap, running water and paper towel. Save the guilt.
Next was some lunch in St. Armand’s circle on Lido Key, a favorite spot for Amy and me. Shortly after we sat down, Amy asked, “Do you know why there is hand sanitizer on the patio tables and not inside? I bet this is a doggie-friendly restaurant.”
Sure enough, ChaCha Coconuts Tropical Bar and Grill was an approved doggie-friendly dining establishment. Our server said there hadn’t been any problems, most of the dogs in the St. Armand area were tiny, but it was problematic when owners insisted their dogs sit in a chair at the table. She said,
“I have a dog. It sits on the floor. So do these dogs.”
Not everyone in the Tampa area is happy with the doggy dining regs. Richard Bond, owner of Yeoman's Road Pub on Davis Islands, told the Tampa Tribune on Friday that he put up a sign at his restaurant saying that because of the "unreasonable nature" of the pet ordinance, the pub would no longer allow pets on the patio.
"There's a money issue. You have to have a sanitary station. It's too much for me to be dog-friendly. When I got it I said, 'Just another thing for the city of Tampa to try to make a couple of extra bucks.' "
The server at ChaCha’s said being doggy friendly gave them an edge, especially during the economic downturn and the off-season.
There’s media noise. And there’s reality. It’s been strangely bizarre listening to the media histrionics on the Weather Channel and CNN about the approaching Fay, compared with the low-key, been-there-done-that response of the locals.
We’ll get home eventually. Courtlynn is pumped about the manatees and dolphins off the pier … and the new season of the Hills starting tonight.
Blaming consumers -- Florida style
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Pot pies, produce, peanut butter, pizza and pet food.These are not consumer food safety issues. There are farm and processing issues.
But so many government, academic and industry types can't help themselves, and have to make baseless declarations, like, "We have the safest food in the world," and, "The majority of foodborne illness happens in the home."
Estimates I've seen vary from 10 per cent to 90 per cent of identified foodborne illness happening in the home. But if I put peanut butter on bread, does that mean I should have taken steps to protect myself, like deep-frying the peanut butter? Should I cook all my fresh produce? How are the numbers counted?
Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson said in a press release today that,
"Numerous food-borne illness outbreaks during the past year have heightened public awareness about the dangers with various types of food items. From E-coli in lettuce and meat to salmonella in poultry, more than 76 million people are sickened by food-borne illnesses every year in the United States, resulting in more than 5,000 fatalities.
"However, the majority of food poisonings occur as a result of unsafe preparation and cooking practices."
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Show us the data. Further, telling people -- like Commissioner Bronson did -- that, "once consumers have purchased the food it is up to them to follow safe and proper food handling practices" seems simplistic -- or convenient. Especially considering the number of salmonella outbreaks linked to Florida tomatoes that consumers could have done … nothing to prevent.
Cocoa Beach closer to dog-dining ordinance
Florida Today reports that Cocoa Beach could become the first beachside community in Brevard County, Florida, to allow restaurant patrons to bring their dogs to dinner (instead of leaving them outside in the rain, left).Tonya Morgan, general manager at The Surf, which brought the request for the ordinance before the commission, said, "We thought that dogs were allowed on the patio. We never realized that we were breaking the law.”
Morgan said they wanted to legally do what they had already been doing at the request of customers, who come to the restaurant patio area with their dogs.
The commission voted 4-1 in favor of the measure. Councilman Ken Griffin, the lone dissenter, said, "I oppose this. I wasn’t raised up eating with dogs."
Doggie dining has pros and cons. The Florida state guidelines seem like a reasonable compromise.
