Headline hysteria: Food inspection 'disaster' looms
The phone rang about 5 a.m. New Zealand time.
The reporter started in about how she had some document, and a guy got fired and would I review it.
I said, e-mail it, I don’t want to wake my wife, bye.
Last week, it was reported that an employee with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was fired after sharing a document that supposedly outlines changes to food inspection and labeling in Canada.
This reporter had an exclusive copy of the document and was seeking so-called expert opinion on its contents.
This is what I e-mailed the reporter (I rarely use capitals or proper grammar in e-mail messages)
I've reviewed the document; not sure what the big deal is
government will always being looking to save money, as they should; any proposed change would have to be measured against the potential impact to public health
the underlying principle is: Industry has a responsibility to produce safe food -- from farm to fork. Government is there to verify and enforce.
there are specifics to consider with each summary point -- for example, would eliminating funding for BSE testing encourage less testing?
but based on these summaries, it's difficult to say much; and as the (Ottawa) Citizen story says, there's no surprises here; the agency has been moving in this direction for years
In a subsequent message, I said,
sorry i couldn't have added more, but the real issue seems to be the termination of this person's appointment
CFIA does lots of insufficient food safety things, but they aren't covered in that document
The story that appeared Saturday was typically Canadian – long on speculation, short on substance.
One source, described as “a leading Canadian academic specializing in food risk management” spoke only on the condition of anonymity. What’s the point of having tenure if academics won’t go on the public record? Maybe the unknown academic was embarrassed by his or her comments.
"Reducing food safety controls at this time could be disastrous if there is an outbreak of a new food-borne disease.”
The document contained summary points about shuffling responsibilities – it said nothing about reducing food safety controls. For those who think government is in control when it comes to food safety, spend some time in the food safety world, not just when it’s fashionable.
After paragraphs of baseless speculation, my e-mail message was turned into a quote:
Douglas Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University, said, "Industry has a responsibility to produce safe food, from farm to fork. Government is there to verify and enforce."
But the best part is what isn’t in the story, A reporter from a national television news outlet called Ben for comment, and subsequently told Ben they had killed the story: not enough substance.
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The reporter started in about how she had some document, and a guy got fired and would I review it.
I said, e-mail it, I don’t want to wake my wife, bye.Last week, it was reported that an employee with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was fired after sharing a document that supposedly outlines changes to food inspection and labeling in Canada.
This reporter had an exclusive copy of the document and was seeking so-called expert opinion on its contents.
This is what I e-mailed the reporter (I rarely use capitals or proper grammar in e-mail messages)
I've reviewed the document; not sure what the big deal is
government will always being looking to save money, as they should; any proposed change would have to be measured against the potential impact to public health
the underlying principle is: Industry has a responsibility to produce safe food -- from farm to fork. Government is there to verify and enforce.
there are specifics to consider with each summary point -- for example, would eliminating funding for BSE testing encourage less testing?
but based on these summaries, it's difficult to say much; and as the (Ottawa) Citizen story says, there's no surprises here; the agency has been moving in this direction for years
In a subsequent message, I said,
sorry i couldn't have added more, but the real issue seems to be the termination of this person's appointment
CFIA does lots of insufficient food safety things, but they aren't covered in that document
The story that appeared Saturday was typically Canadian – long on speculation, short on substance.
One source, described as “a leading Canadian academic specializing in food risk management” spoke only on the condition of anonymity. What’s the point of having tenure if academics won’t go on the public record? Maybe the unknown academic was embarrassed by his or her comments.
"Reducing food safety controls at this time could be disastrous if there is an outbreak of a new food-borne disease.”
The document contained summary points about shuffling responsibilities – it said nothing about reducing food safety controls. For those who think government is in control when it comes to food safety, spend some time in the food safety world, not just when it’s fashionable.
After paragraphs of baseless speculation, my e-mail message was turned into a quote:
Douglas Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University, said, "Industry has a responsibility to produce safe food, from farm to fork. Government is there to verify and enforce."
But the best part is what isn’t in the story, A reporter from a national television news outlet called Ben for comment, and subsequently told Ben they had killed the story: not enough substance.
Strict safety guidelines enforced as produce travels from Mexico
The Dallas Morning News ran a couple of excellent features on the flow of food from Mexico to the U.S. Yesterday's story was about the lack of inspectors, how little product was actually inspected, and, perhaps unwittingly, the problem of inspecting fresh produce for microbial contaminants.
“In December, officials took a sample for testing from a 5,500-pound load of Mexican basil moving through the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego. The basil continued on to its destination and was sold to restaurants and other customers in California, Texas and Illinois the next day. When the test results came back two weeks later, they suggested salmonella contamination, sparking a late recall.”
It's much better to design safety into all operations, beginning on the farm.
Glenn Fry helps run Taylor Farms de Mexico's new $14 million plant in San José Iturbide, Mexico. He picked the land where it sits, designed just about every facet of it, and he manages more than 800 workers who plant, harvest and package produce – including lettuce, onions and broccoli – for export to the U.S.
Today’s story says that Taylor Farms is just one of a handful of U.S. companies lured by Mexico's ideal year-round growing climate, proximity to Texas, low labor costs and plentiful workforce.
During a recent lettuce harvest, quality-control supervisor Laura Patino pointed to an aide who monitors workers coming out of the mobile toilets at the end of the fields to make sure they wash their hands before returning to work.
"Many of our workers don't even have toilets at home, so this is new to them," Ms. Patino explains. "We've literally taught many of them how to go to the restroom. It's that basic."
The lettuce field – owned by Oscar A. Bitar Macedo and leased by Taylor – is fenced off from outside "contamination." Heavy strips of yellow plastic keep out dogs, cattle and other livestock.
Mr. Bitar, owner of Rancho Don Alberto, leases all of his 100 hectares (about 247 acres) to Taylor. And he's responsible for maintenance, water wells, monthly water testing, fencing, security guards and, yes, even toilet paper. …
Within two hours, 24 boxes, each holding about 850 pounds of lettuce, are transported to Taylor's plant a few miles down the road for the first of several safety checks.
At the entrance, 19-year-old Efigenia Rosas checks the boxes to make sure they're labeled with bar codes identifying the owner's farm, crew supervisor, field and time of harvest – a crucial step in the process. If a consumer later finds a problem, Taylor can trace the produce back to the field and farmer. …
At 6 p.m., driver Roman Ayala, an employee of Flensa Trucking, begins the drive north on Mexico's Highway 57. He's in no rush because he has no chance of getting to Nuevo Laredo before Customs shuts down the bridge at 11 p.m. And it won't reopen until 8 a.m., something that frustrates Mr. Fry to no end.
"How can the U.S. government be serious about food safety when they shut down the border overnight and perishable goods have to sit there and wait?" he asks.
There is also a good video overview of the lettuce harvesting procedures available along with the story at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/mexico/stories/063008dningproducttaylor.40d72a3.html
“In December, officials took a sample for testing from a 5,500-pound load of Mexican basil moving through the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego. The basil continued on to its destination and was sold to restaurants and other customers in California, Texas and Illinois the next day. When the test results came back two weeks later, they suggested salmonella contamination, sparking a late recall.”
It's much better to design safety into all operations, beginning on the farm.
Glenn Fry helps run Taylor Farms de Mexico's new $14 million plant in San José Iturbide, Mexico. He picked the land where it sits, designed just about every facet of it, and he manages more than 800 workers who plant, harvest and package produce – including lettuce, onions and broccoli – for export to the U.S.Today’s story says that Taylor Farms is just one of a handful of U.S. companies lured by Mexico's ideal year-round growing climate, proximity to Texas, low labor costs and plentiful workforce.
During a recent lettuce harvest, quality-control supervisor Laura Patino pointed to an aide who monitors workers coming out of the mobile toilets at the end of the fields to make sure they wash their hands before returning to work.
"Many of our workers don't even have toilets at home, so this is new to them," Ms. Patino explains. "We've literally taught many of them how to go to the restroom. It's that basic."
The lettuce field – owned by Oscar A. Bitar Macedo and leased by Taylor – is fenced off from outside "contamination." Heavy strips of yellow plastic keep out dogs, cattle and other livestock.
Mr. Bitar, owner of Rancho Don Alberto, leases all of his 100 hectares (about 247 acres) to Taylor. And he's responsible for maintenance, water wells, monthly water testing, fencing, security guards and, yes, even toilet paper. …
Within two hours, 24 boxes, each holding about 850 pounds of lettuce, are transported to Taylor's plant a few miles down the road for the first of several safety checks.
At the entrance, 19-year-old Efigenia Rosas checks the boxes to make sure they're labeled with bar codes identifying the owner's farm, crew supervisor, field and time of harvest – a crucial step in the process. If a consumer later finds a problem, Taylor can trace the produce back to the field and farmer. …
At 6 p.m., driver Roman Ayala, an employee of Flensa Trucking, begins the drive north on Mexico's Highway 57. He's in no rush because he has no chance of getting to Nuevo Laredo before Customs shuts down the bridge at 11 p.m. And it won't reopen until 8 a.m., something that frustrates Mr. Fry to no end.
"How can the U.S. government be serious about food safety when they shut down the border overnight and perishable goods have to sit there and wait?" he asks.
There is also a good video overview of the lettuce harvesting procedures available along with the story at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/mexico/stories/063008dningproducttaylor.40d72a3.html
Florida restaurant fined for keeping bread in bathroom
Eyewitness News in Sanford, Florida discovered a popular fast food restaurant, Checker's. that's accused of storing food on the floor inside the men's restroom. The food that was left on the floor in the restroom was just one of several critical violations health inspectors found at a Checkers location in Sanford.
Employees at the Checkers store on South French Avenue at West 15th Street apparently decided it was okay to store buns for their hamburgers inside a not-so-clean men's room.
Tuesday, it appeared they had changed the policy, but not before racking up a dozen health code violations.
Employees at the Checkers store on South French Avenue at West 15th Street apparently decided it was okay to store buns for their hamburgers inside a not-so-clean men's room.
Tuesday, it appeared they had changed the policy, but not before racking up a dozen health code violations.
Fancy food does not mean safe food: Whole Foods and golf club edition
Napa’s new Whole Foods received an F grade in its first county food facility inspection.
Store manager David Cosper said the market’s sheer size and diversity of offerings may have contributed towards the failing grade, which Whole Foods took steps to fix “immediately."
The major violations included improper handwashing and use of gloves at a hot counter area, improper hot and cold holding temperatures in several food areas and lack of availability of hot or cold water at two sinks. Other violations included improper handling of food and food storage, uncovered containers and missing sneeze guards.
In Virginia, the Daily Press reports that Ford's Colony, a popular gated community in James City County complete with a 200-acre wildlife preserve, a wine cellar with 1,600 labels and three 18-hole golf courses, has also, on occasion, been home to poorly dated food, meat kept at improper temperatures and employees who were caught not washing their hands.
Ford's Colony is hardly the only private club with health violations in Hampton Roads. Country clubs, yacht clubs and golf clubs with exclusive memberships from James City to Suffolk have all recently received critical marks that belie the air of posh living these communities pride themselves on.
It's like Ben and I discovered during the halfway point of a food safety golf tournament in Baltimore in 2005, when a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."
His sidekick piped up, "Me too."
I asked the kid flipping burgers if he had a meat thermometer.
He replied, snickering, "Yeah, this is a pretty high-tech operation."
The young woman taking orders glanced about, and then confided that she didn't think there was a meat thermometer anywhere in the kitchen; this, at a fancy golf course catering to weddings and other swanky functions along with grunts on the golf course.
Store manager David Cosper said the market’s sheer size and diversity of offerings may have contributed towards the failing grade, which Whole Foods took steps to fix “immediately."The major violations included improper handwashing and use of gloves at a hot counter area, improper hot and cold holding temperatures in several food areas and lack of availability of hot or cold water at two sinks. Other violations included improper handling of food and food storage, uncovered containers and missing sneeze guards.
In Virginia, the Daily Press reports that Ford's Colony, a popular gated community in James City County complete with a 200-acre wildlife preserve, a wine cellar with 1,600 labels and three 18-hole golf courses, has also, on occasion, been home to poorly dated food, meat kept at improper temperatures and employees who were caught not washing their hands.
Ford's Colony is hardly the only private club with health violations in Hampton Roads. Country clubs, yacht clubs and golf clubs with exclusive memberships from James City to Suffolk have all recently received critical marks that belie the air of posh living these communities pride themselves on.
It's like Ben and I discovered during the halfway point of a food safety golf tournament in Baltimore in 2005, when a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."
His sidekick piped up, "Me too."
I asked the kid flipping burgers if he had a meat thermometer.
He replied, snickering, "Yeah, this is a pretty high-tech operation."
The young woman taking orders glanced about, and then confided that she didn't think there was a meat thermometer anywhere in the kitchen; this, at a fancy golf course catering to weddings and other swanky functions along with grunts on the golf course.
Health department sued over inspection
The White County Health Department is being sued by a restaurant they temporarily closed due to a.jpg)
poor inspection. Owners of Mo's Restaurant in Monticello, Indiana, claim that following inspections of their restaurant, health department employees "negligently and/or intentionally prepar[ed] a false and defamatory Food Inspection Report" on three different occasions.
A story in the town's Herald-Journal says, "The lawsuit seeks a judgment against the defendants in an amount sufficient to compensate Drake and Liebner for their losses, including permanent and temporary damage, loss of value, loss of profits, loss of use, costs of repair and mental and emotional stress, as well as "such further relief as the court deems appropriate."
poor inspection. Owners of Mo's Restaurant in Monticello, Indiana, claim that following inspections of their restaurant, health department employees "negligently and/or intentionally prepar[ed] a false and defamatory Food Inspection Report" on three different occasions. A story in the town's Herald-Journal says, "The lawsuit seeks a judgment against the defendants in an amount sufficient to compensate Drake and Liebner for their losses, including permanent and temporary damage, loss of value, loss of profits, loss of use, costs of repair and mental and emotional stress, as well as "such further relief as the court deems appropriate."
Fancy food does not mean safe food -- really
Proving once again that fancy food does not mean safe food, Your Local Guardian reports that of the 539 establishments rated in Merton, U.K. this year under the Scores on the Doors rating scheme, supported by the Food Standards Agency, 94 were given a one-star or "poor" rating and 31 were given a no star or "very poor" rating, making a total of 125.The rating ranges from no stars for the worst levels of compliance, through to five stars for the very best standards of food safety management. A two star rating is defined as largely compliant with national requirements.
Jeff Ward, general manager of Cannizaro House Hotel, which received no stars, said"We are the only four-star hotel in the area and have two rosettes from the AA. I was shocked by the rating. We have spent £20,000 on the kitchen since then and will be inviting the inspectors back to reassess us now."
Steve Barr, Secretary of London Scottish Golf Club, which received no stars, said, "We think the rating was unfair because we were in the process of changing our steward and caterers. We are very confident we will get a much better rating next time."
Alberta sets provincewide standards for restaurants and inspection disclosure
One year after a three-part investigation by the Edmonton Journal, Karen Kleiss reports this morning that the number of compulsory restaurant closures is up, health regions across the province have adopted minimum standards, and all Albertans can expect to have online access to inspection results by July 1.Capital Health Authority spokesman Steve Buick, referring to lessons learned after last year's complaints by the public and provincial auditor general, said,
"We think generally the system has served people well, but it needed upgrading in a few key respects, and certainly the disclosure issue is one of them. We get that the public wants to see more information. ... It needs to be more transparent, and it will be."
Health Minister Dave Hancock has ordered all Alberta health regions to adopt uniform risk assessment and management standards, and he wants all Alberta health regions to come up with a plan to make restaurant inspection reports available online.
Robert Bradbury, director of public health for the Calgary Health Region, said,
"We will move as close to complete disclosure as we possibly can. It's all about choice. The more information the dining public has, the better prepared they are to make that choice."
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Another convert. Now, what is the most effective and meaningful way to communicate the results of restaurant inspections?Last year, The Journal put a searchable database of restaurant inspections on the edmontonjournal.com website. It received more than 500,000 hits.
Repeat restaurant offenders? Open by breakfast
Nashville, Tennessee's News Channel 5 reviewed state restaurant inspection results and discovered that some of the dirtiest eateries get written up over and over.
The news team ended up at the Jade Dragon in Clarksville,
one of the worst offenders around when it comes to dirty kitchens; in the last two years, the Jade Dragon has repeatedly failed its surprise inspections, getting scores as low as a 58, 52, even a 47.
The manager told us, "Everything's clean."
The TV crew poked around and discovered what appeared to be many of the same violations the joint had been cited for previously.
Eventually the manager of the Jade Dragon asked, while the cameras rolled,
"Can we get everything stopped? I don't want to be on TV at all."
Hugh Atkins with the state Health Department was quoted as saying,
"We don't allow an unsafe restaurant to remain open," and that if a restaurant is open, it's safe.
Ronnie Hart with the Tennessee Restaurant Association said,
"The bottom line is fix the problem. You can't put a band-aid on it. Fix the problem," adding that his group has little patient for repeat offenders and is now pushing for mandatory food safety training.
We agree.
The news team ended up at the Jade Dragon in Clarksville,
one of the worst offenders around when it comes to dirty kitchens; in the last two years, the Jade Dragon has repeatedly failed its surprise inspections, getting scores as low as a 58, 52, even a 47.
The manager told us, "Everything's clean."
The TV crew poked around and discovered what appeared to be many of the same violations the joint had been cited for previously.
Eventually the manager of the Jade Dragon asked, while the cameras rolled,
"Can we get everything stopped? I don't want to be on TV at all."
Hugh Atkins with the state Health Department was quoted as saying,
"We don't allow an unsafe restaurant to remain open," and that if a restaurant is open, it's safe.
Ronnie Hart with the Tennessee Restaurant Association said,
"The bottom line is fix the problem. You can't put a band-aid on it. Fix the problem," adding that his group has little patient for repeat offenders and is now pushing for mandatory food safety training.
We agree.
Fancy food doesn't mean safe food
Serendipity 3, a famous New York City restaurant which last week unveiled what it called the most expensive dessert in the world, has been shut down by the city Department of Health after a second failed health inspection Wednesday night.Inspectors found the restaurant
"crawling with cockroaches, mice and flies. Inspectors spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings in many areas of the restaurant."
One customer was quoted as saying,
"I am in shock. You know a friend of mine from Washington, D.C. asked me to come by to Serendipity especially to pick some coffee up. So I get here, it's chain and everything and they found a hundred roaches in there."
Restaurant inspection discloure: consumers love it
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Mark Arsenault of the Rhode Island Providence-Journal is the latest to validate what I've long suspected: that the dining public apparently has a huge appetite for information about food safety.Arsenault says that tens of thousands of people have viewed health inspection reports for Rhode Island restaurants, delis, convenience stores and other places food is served since the reports first became available online last Tuesday.
Ernest M. Julian, chief of the Office of Food Protection at the Rhode Island Department of Health, said,
“We had one person call us who said they searched for 100 places online. People are checking all the places they eat. … It’s obvious the public wants this information, based on the number of views."
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The Health Department has posted a database of some 4,000 food service inspection reports, covering about half the food establishments in the state, dating back to January. The reports list health violations with short explanations. The inspection reports are available at www.health.ri.gov/environment/food/inspections.php.After being publicized by local media, the site attracted so much Web traffic on Thursday that an Internet traffic jam developed that temporarily slowed the site.
Restaurant inspection disclosure on its own does little, but does contribute to developing a culture that values microbiologically safe food.
Will more inspectors make food safer?
No. An Associated Press story last night continues the fascination with all things political and the on-going, bureaucratic discussion about whether a single food inspection agency will improve food safety.
The story notes that in the two ConAgra contamination cases, it turns out that an FDA inspector hadn't been to the company's peanut butter plant in Georgia for two years before the recall, while a USDA inspector visits the Missouri pot pie plant daily.
If that's the case, then maybe inspectors are the wrong focus here.
Bill Marler got it right yesterday when he wrote about the same AP story that,
Frankly, I am not sure a single agency, or the government for that matter (remember how well it did in Hurricane Katrina), will solve the problem of companies selling poisoned products to customers. Perhaps when farmers, ranchers, shippers, middlemen of all sorts, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants all recall that customers could be their kid, they would put safety before profits.
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I expressed a similar notion this morning in the Baltimore Sun. "You can't inspect your way to a safe food supply," said Douglas Powell, scientific director at Kansas State University's International Food Safety Network. "You can't have an inspector on every site 24/7 to inspect every piece of food that goes to market. You have to create a culture where everyone from the farm to the processing facility, people at restaurants, consumers at home are more in tune with the culture of food safety. People need to get really religious about this. Food safety is everyone's responsibility."
How best to develop a food safety culture is where we're focusing much of our research activity.
It's certainly more than telling people,
"We have the safest food supply in the world,"
as Mindy Brashears, director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University, did in the same Baltimore Sun story.
Scores on doors
That's the snappy name the U.K. is using for restaurant inspection disclosure across the entire country.For instance, one story reports that food hygiene standards at more than 60 catering outlets across Bradford district, UK, have been graded very poor and their staff had "little or no appreciation of food safety."
The results released and posted on the website www.scoresonthedoors.org, give each outlet a grading of between none and five stars.
The story notes that the prestigious Ilkley Golf Club in Nesfield Road, where top golfer Colin Montgomerie learned to play and names former European Ryder Cup captain Mark James as an honorary member, was among those retaurants given no stars -- the lowest ranking possible.
The council's grading system defines no stars as a performance level very poor' and that club staff show "a general failure to comply with legal requirements" and "little or no appreciation of food safety."
Inspectors also found that there was "little" confidence in management.
Ratings for all the catering outlets the inspectors visited are available at www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk.
We're all for restaurant inspection disclosure, not because it necessarily enhances the microbial safety of food, but it does contribute to a food safety culture.
Restaurant inspection -- by Larry the Cable Guy
Despite being universally panned by critics and avoided by moviegoers, I finally saw Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector while editing news the other night. Sure it's terrible and deserves its #87 ranking in IMDb's Bottom 100, but it has some food safety moments.When Larry's partner, Amy Butlin, asks,
"How did you become a health inspector? I mean working for the government, it sounds so exciting?"
Larry responds:
"Well, I gotta tell ya, Keepin people from blowin' chunks and crappin' on themselves is pretty much all I've ever been good at. I mean, no one really knows the responsibility I carry around."
Favorite line? After ingesting some tainted food, Larry proclaims:
"My stomach ain't felt this bad since I got the fish sticks out of the vending machine at the Phillips 66."
Dairy Queen has repeat violations
Healthinspections.com is reporting that a Dairy Queen in Daytona Beach was fined $900 for repeated problems such as untrained employees handling food and foods held at dangerous temperatures.Based on a review of thousands of health inspections in 12 cities, Dairy Queen has one of the worst records in the fast food industry, often with critical violations that have not been corrected since the last inspection. The chain has one of the worst records in fast food for repeating the same health code violation time and again.
Employee hygiene is the number one problem at DQ – accounting for 22% of the chain's violations. Hygiene includes everything from workers not washing their hands to employees found eating and drinking in the kitchen.
Near Denver, for example, an inspector watched an employee "wipe nose, take money," and continue to prepare food without washing.
Curb Your Enthusiasm again features L.A.'s restaurant inspection grades
I never liked the television series, Seinfeld.During it's original run from 1989 -- 1998, I rarely watched, and when I did, found the characters self-indulgent and whiny. Which they were. It just wasn't that funny.
Curb Your Enthusiasm by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David is much better.
For the second week now of the new season, the Los Angeles restaurant inspection signs -- in both cases A -- are prominently displayed.
Tonight, as Larry is waiting to get ice cream behind a sample abuser -- someone who asks to sample every flavor available -- a big L.A. restaurant inspection A is displayed in the window (thanks, Reece, for finding this pic).
Larry won't however take the $50 he is owed in a golf bet from the newly orphaned Marty Funkhouser after the death of his mother, preceded by the death of his father last year, because of its dodgy microbiological quality after being removed from the insole of Marty's jogging shoe.
Larry also says that the customer is usually "a moron and an a**hole."
But they pay. And they like their restaurant inspection disclosure letters (L.A.), colors (Toronto), or smiley faces (Denmark).
Orlando, this is directed at you.
Intervention: it's not just a bad TV show, it's a new type of restaurant inspection enforcement
Gee's Garden Bistro, 1145 N. Alvernon Way, Tuscon, Arizona, failed an unannounced restaurant inspection July 17. And a re-inspection July 27; and Aug. 8 and Aug. 21.So the Pima County Health Department tried a new strategy - intervention.
Sharon Browning, director of Pima County's Consumer Health and Food Safety unit, told the Tucson Citizen that Gee's is the first restaurant to go through the county's intervention program, devised in 2002, stating,
"It's not like a last resort, but it's close. We're trying to allow these people to stay open while they make significant changes, and it's a tool that's been in our toolbox, but one we'd never used until now."
The intervention period will include unannounced inspections at irregular intervals through January, at which point the restaurant could regain its regular license or have it revoked.
Post the scores
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The Orlando Sentinel argues in a forceful editorial that Florida restaurants should be posting some kind of restaurant inspection information rather than requiring would-be customers to visit a web site.Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Holly Benson says, "No one ever goes to our Web site."
The editorial says that state inspections of Central Florida restaurants found that almost one in three eateries in the past 14 months got cited for rodent- or roach-related violations.
Two in five employed poor hygienic practices, including workers not washing their hands.
And three of five restaurants scored at least 10 "critical violations" that can lead to a variety of foodborne illnesses.
The editorial further says that Ms. Benson should push the Legislature not just to require easily understandable inspections in restaurants, but to give you enough staff for three inspections per year per restaurant. Now, the department struggles to conduct just two inspections.
Push it to give you authority to impose more meaningful fines, and to give you more resources so your department can better educate operators in sanitary food preparation.
Push it to allow you to get more restaurants to do daily what most of them already, generally, are doing: serving the public well.
Post the scores. Such public displays of information help bolster overall awareness of food safety amongst staff and the public -- people routinely talk about this stuff. The interested public can handle more, not less, information about food safety.
And instead of waiting for politicians to take the lead, the best restaurants, those with nothing to hide and everything to be proud of, will go ahead and make their inspection scores available -- today.
Casey Wilkinson, guest barfblogger: Poop on your shoes...
The Associated Press posted an article early this morning entitled, “Buffet worker stomps garlic with boots.” Visions of dog poop and day-old mud imbedded in the fine crevices of the soles of these boots flooded my mind and brought terror to my heart. Would someone actually do this? Could a fellow eater like myself be so distracted from the bacterial ramifications of using one’s shoes as a culinary instrument?
I clicked on the headline and waited for the story to appear. I read in horror as each word confirmed my deepest fears: the entire story was absolutely true.
Apparently the worker at a Great China Buffet restaurant was using a very innovative technique to press garlic cloves: stomping them with his boots in a back alley. A passerby had noted him there with a horror similar to my own and snapped a photo.
The Rockland County Health Department was notified and quickly came for an inspection. The worker was fired for his act, and the restaurant will be re-inspected soon.
I wish I could rest easy now, but I’m afraid there may be more out there just like him: full of ignorance and disregard for the safety of our food.
Don’t eat poop, people: Wash your hands. And don’t stomp the garlic.
I clicked on the headline and waited for the story to appear. I read in horror as each word confirmed my deepest fears: the entire story was absolutely true.
Apparently the worker at a Great China Buffet restaurant was using a very innovative technique to press garlic cloves: stomping them with his boots in a back alley. A passerby had noted him there with a horror similar to my own and snapped a photo.
The Rockland County Health Department was notified and quickly came for an inspection. The worker was fired for his act, and the restaurant will be re-inspected soon.
I wish I could rest easy now, but I’m afraid there may be more out there just like him: full of ignorance and disregard for the safety of our food.
Don’t eat poop, people: Wash your hands. And don’t stomp the garlic.
Not sure how this will increase produce food safety
The Arizona Republic reports today that the Arizona Department of Agriculture has announced plans to introduce new technology that will make fresh produce inspection faster, cheaper and more effective.
The story says that officials believe that produced tainted with bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella, will have a harder time ending up in the hands of consumers because the dept of ag can conduct more inspections (and cut their per-inspection time down to an hour)
"The introduction of the Fresh Electronic Inspection Reporting/Resource System allows inspectors to input inspection data, such as sugar content and produce quality, into special software developed specifically for that purpose."
It's believed that by cutting down inspection time, there will be more time for more government random checks.
Maybe it will increase the visibility of inspectors on the farm, but I'm not convinced that more generic inspection is the way to go -- having people on farms help farmers reduce risk (either through extension or industry consulting -- people who know the risks, and how to manage them) seems a lot more productive to me. There is research to suggest that more restaurant inspections do not lead to a reduction of the likelihood of illnesses. Farms may be different, but I'm not sure.
I'm not versed in the Arizona Department of Ag's inspection regime, but I did a quick search of the site and didn't find any reference to inspecting for good agricultureal practices (searched "inspection" and all I got was the press release saying that they are using the new technology).
The story says that officials believe that produced tainted with bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella, will have a harder time ending up in the hands of consumers because the dept of ag can conduct more inspections (and cut their per-inspection time down to an hour)
"The introduction of the Fresh Electronic Inspection Reporting/Resource System allows inspectors to input inspection data, such as sugar content and produce quality, into special software developed specifically for that purpose."
It's believed that by cutting down inspection time, there will be more time for more government random checks.
Maybe it will increase the visibility of inspectors on the farm, but I'm not convinced that more generic inspection is the way to go -- having people on farms help farmers reduce risk (either through extension or industry consulting -- people who know the risks, and how to manage them) seems a lot more productive to me. There is research to suggest that more restaurant inspections do not lead to a reduction of the likelihood of illnesses. Farms may be different, but I'm not sure.
I'm not versed in the Arizona Department of Ag's inspection regime, but I did a quick search of the site and didn't find any reference to inspecting for good agricultureal practices (searched "inspection" and all I got was the press release saying that they are using the new technology).
It's too hot for hell to have frozen over but ...
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Seven years after a newspaper series focused attention on restaurant inspection in Toronto, the local paper in the sleepy borough of Guelph, Ontario, 40 miles down the road, has seen fit to run a story about four local restaurants getting fined for food safety infractions.It's the first local coverage I can recall. And I lived there a long time.
In 2004 I had a student call the local health unit and ask for inspection information about a few Guelph restaurants. She was told to file a written request with the Board of Health and await a response in the mail; 4-6 weeks.
So while seemingly every jurisdiction in Canada and the U.S. was figuring out the best way to make restaurant inspection information public and meaningful -- even Jessica Simpson, exactly as pictured, left, gets it -- the city of Guelph, Canada's self-proclaimed food safety center, did what it does best -- be a bureaucrat.
What's with all the goats in restaurants?
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On this video, councilman Dennis Mobley of New Franklin, Ohio, just south of Akron, runs from a TV reporter who wants to ask questions about the councilman's dirty restaurant.Healthinspections.com reports that Mobley owns a place called Your Pizza, a popular spot in the town of 14,000 that has been cited for a lot of serious health code violations, including a goat in the pizzeria.
Quality and safety are two different things
Four students in a graduate seminar in investigative reporting at Northeastern University put together and published an impressive feature on restaurant inspection disclosure - or lack thereof -- in the Boston Globe this morning.The authors/students had fun focusing especially on so-called high-end restaurants and their many food safety failings.
"For almost a month late this spring, devotees of Tealuxe, the popular Newbury Street tea house and cafe, was closed -- for mechanical repairs, its manager, Ryan Moore, was cited as insisting in an interview Friday....
"But, according to an internal report prepared by the Boston Public Health Commission, the restaurant was shuttered because at least 21 people, including 10 employees, were exposed to the salmonella bacteria the first week of May, and of those, 11 patrons and three employees became ill."
The feature story lists dozens of restaurant infractions at various fancy eateries,
"At too many restaurants, inspectors regularly find violations that suggest that managers and owners do not take in-house food safety training seriously, especially for immigrant employees with limited English language skills. As a result, many workers do not wash their hands between tasks or wear hair restraints, do not change gloves when appropriate or even wear gloves when handling bread and other ready-to-eat items.
"Such findings may surprise most consumers, because the city's Division of Health Inspections, which is part of the Inspectional Services Department, keeps its reports buried in file drawers. An ISD website -- http://www. cityofboston.gov/isd/health/mfc/court.asp -- offers only limited and outdated information. And what the site does have is difficult to understand for anyone who is not a food safety specialist.
"When the Globe asked for the inspection reports, ISD said it would take 78 hours of staff time, plus copying costs, to produce them -- at a cost of $2,039. When the newspaper challenged the estimate, city officials recalculated the time involved, and reduced the cost to about $600.
"Also kept under wraps, available only through a formal public records request, are the identities of close to 400 food service establishments -- the Federalist included -- that have been temporarily shut down since 2002 for food safety violations.
In an interview, Thomas J. Goodfellow, the director of ISD's Division of Health Inspections, could not explain why Boston, unlike other cities, had not publicized the closings, or even posted them online. State law, Goodfellow said, does not require it."
There's just too many stinky hands.
Publicly available grading systems rapidly communicate to diners the potential risk in dining at a particular establishment and restaurants given a lower grade may be more likely to comply with health regulations in the future to prevent lost business.
More importantly, such public displays of information help bolster overall awareness of food safety amongst staff and the public -- people routinely talk about this stuff. The interested public can handle more, not less, information about food safety.
And instead of waiting for politicians to take the lead, the best restaurants, those with nothing to hide and everything to be proud of, will go ahead and make their inspection scores available -- today.
Waiter, there's a ...
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel offers these tips for safe dining out:Pick restaurants where the bathrooms have soap, toilet paper and paper towels.
Insects, such as roaches, and rodents should not be inside a restaurant.
Food should be thoroughly cooked, especially chicken and ground beef.
If you become ill after eating in a restaurant, seek medical attention and call your county health department. Save suspect restaurant food by freezing it in a clean container with a lid.
And the more information about restaurant inspections, the better.
Eat, drink and golf
Newport News, Virginia, host of the annual Jeff Schieck invitational golf and gabfest, is getting into restaurant inspection disclosure, big time.
It's the latest attempt by cities and states to provide meaningful information about dining establishments, and even more notable, newspapers themselves are hiring folks to present the information in a user-friendly manner.
Those of us who gather in Newport News every spring appreciate the additional information, and look forward to the rankings at Schieck's favorite dining spot, Golden Corral.
This is a terrible picture ...
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... but it's what Toronto's restaurant inspection disclosure system looks like -- the infamous red, yellow, green.Columbus, Ohio, has apparently decided to adopt a similar system. Barnet D. Wolf of The Columbus Dispatch reports that,
"The inspection process has received more attention since the board instituted a color-coded food-safety sign system for restaurants, markets and other retail food businesses. The signs tell consumers whether the location meets state health-code requirements.
The green sign means all standards have been met. Red means the facility has been shut down or put on probation for critical code violations.
A number of restaurant owners viewed the signs' introduction with dismay, thinking the process would be overly costly and time consuming.
After initially opposing the signs, the Central Ohio Restaurant Association has changed its mind. Gail Baker, the group's director, said the system is "fair to restaurants and will give the public a tool" to assess dining spots' safety.
Fighting public disclosure is a bad idea. Figuring out the best way to provide information is a good idea.
Sorry you're sick, how's the food?
A U.K. MP is urging hospitals to display environmental health reports on their websites, telling EDP 24, "I would be very pleased to go and look at standards. Patients have a right to know how their food is being prepared when they go into hospital. Hygiene standards must be made public via clear and accessible ratings for each institution. The worst performers should be named and shamed - while those doing well would stand as an example to drive up standards."
The comments by Liberal Democrat health spokesman and North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb followed the release of a report by the Liberal Democrats that found that nationally nearly half of all hospital kitchens and canteens in England could be failing to meet basic standards of cleanliness and hygiene.
Vermin, cockroaches and mouse droppings, medical waste on food handling equipment and poor person hygiene among catering staff were all cited as problems.
Restaurant tip: Don't scratch your butt and then prepare salad
Rebecca J. Gray Causey, a regional food safety and defense coordinator for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control could be my new personal hero.The Myrtle Beach Sun News reported on restaurant inspection today and cited Causey as doing a food inspection, when the salad bar worker stopped chopping lettuce, commenced scratching his bottom and then returned to chopping lettuce.
Causey found the eatery's manager and told him,
"Let's have a talk with Stinky Hands. He needs to know that if he has an itchy butt, he doesn't scratch it on the [salad bar] line."
Causey, shut down the salad bar 30 minutes before the eatery's opening time. All the food on the bar had to be thrown away.
On another occasion, Causey saw Stinky Hands' brother popping pimples on his chest while he was grilling meat.
Proactive postings
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While many cities grapple with the desirability of restaurant inspection disclosure, a new City of Milwaukee Web site is offering the first-of-its-kind digital system that enables visitors to review health inspection records of city restaurants, food stores and other outlets that sell food.Alderman Michael Murphy was quoted as saying "The great thing about this new Web site is that it provides timely information on the current City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) codes compliance of any restaurant, tavern, or food store in the city. So, if you have any questions about the cleanliness or condition of a particular city business selling food, you just go online and review the reports for yourself."
Kudos to Milwaukee for embracing disclosure.
