Author Archives: Katie Filion

Chattanooga oyster bar strikes again

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In January, 19 people became ill after eating oysters at The Boathouse Rotisserie and Raw Bar in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now, the same establishment has been linked to 9 ill persons who ate at the restaurant between March 5th and 8th, reports WTVC-TV.

[The Chattanooga-Hamilton County] Health Department conducted the investigation to determine the cause of the illness… Laboratory testing of ill individuals identified Norovirus as the cause. The establishment fully cooperated with the Health Department’s procedures, including halting service of implicated oysters when notified of the illnesses.

Margaret Zylstra, Epidemiology Manager at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department said,

"Oysters should be cooked thoroughly. Any oyster not thoroughly cooked poses the risk of foodborne illness."

Bacterial and viral pathogens can be carried in oysters, including Vibrio, Hepatitis A and Norovirus. Even in healthy individuals, these pathogens cause illness. These illnesses can be severe, particularly in the elderly or in persons with weakened immune systems. In addition, most of these illnesses can then be spread to other individuals through person to person contact.

Third time’s a charm for Alabama sushi restaurant

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I love sushi, especially all-you-can-eat sushi, but I don’t think I would eat at a sushi place that required three restaurant inspections before it was deemed safe.

Ichiban Sushi House in Montgomery, AL received a score of 63 after its first inspection, and 67 the second time around. Now a third surprise inspection will determine whether the establishment has made necessary improvements and can avoid license suspension, reports montgomeryadviser.com.

The latest inspection report listed 15 violations, including four that were considered critical. The first inspection was conducted Feb. 26, and the second was conducted March 11.

That’s one of the problems with restaurant inspection: the definition and consequential actions of a critical violation vary between jurisdictions. In some, a critical violation means automatic failure of the inspection and closure; in others, like Montgomery, establishments are re-inspected to ensure the violation is corrected.

In Alabama establishments are scored based on a 100 point system, with 85 and above being good, 70-85 being decent, and between 60-70 meaning the establishment must take immediate corrective actions within 48 hours. Scores below 60 result in closure.

 Inspection scores for restaurants in Alabama are available on the Alabama Department of Public Health website, with Montgomery county results available here.

Kitchen closed for cross-contamination

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Shangri La restaurant in Phoenix, AZ has failed its most recent inspection, and it’s no wonder why, reports Phoenix New Times.

Raw sprouts were too warm. There was no hand soap in the employee restroom. Opened cans of food were stored too long. Boxes of raw duck were in the wrong place, as was a bag of carrots. There were soiled sponges at the hand sink, cooked chicken without a date, and the sink on the cook line was starting to back up.

Directly from the inspection report,

"ICE MACHINE SOILED WITH BLACK & BROWN BUILD UP (INSIDE FRONT PANEL & UNDER PANEL WHERE CHUTE IS). … LARGE CUTTING BOARDS PITTED, SCORED & STAINED."

But that’s not Shangri La’s worst transgression…this inspection report underscores the importance of proper storage:

"TWO BOXES OF RAW CHICKEN BEING STORED AND DRIPPING OVER TWO BOXES OF LETTUCE…."

Inspection reports are available online in Phoenix, and the report for Shangri La can be found here.
 

Miley Cyrus will make you sick

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Miss Cyrus’s Disney Hannah Montana peanut chocolate granola bars have been recalled due to potential Salmonella contamination. The granola bars contain peanut products that have been recalled in the US and Canada by Peanut Corp. of America.  Companies began recalling products linked to the outbreak back in January, so what took the Disney crew so long?

Picture from perezhilton.com

 

Calgary restaurant fined but not closed

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A Calgary restaurant that was unsafe enough to fine, was not unsafe enough to close, reports the Calgary Herald.

A Chestermere restaurant has been fined $19,090 after a series of inspections over a three-year period found evidence of improper food handling.

Violations included failure to ensure food was protected from contamination, failure to ensure high-risk food was stored at proper temperatures, failure to ensure equipment and utensils in contact with food were sanitary, and failure to ensure handwashing stations were properly supplied with soap and papertowels.

Even after several inspections and warnings violations continued, Crown prosecutor O’Neill said.

"You’d think that they’d be on their absolute best behaviour, but the violations continued."

Chestermere Landing Steakhouse and Jovan’s Pizza was never closed during the process and received a clean bill of health from inspectors last month.

Why was the establishment never closed? And why don’t the inspection reports available online mention that the establishment has been taken to court? Seems like a waste of a disclosure system if the information available to the public doesn’t communicate health risks associated with an establishment.
 

When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go

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Yet another cool application for the iPhone. 

COEDmagazine.com raves about Have2P:
 
You panic, you sweat, your mouth runs dry as painful bubbles round bends in your irritated intestines causing you to fall to curl into a squatting fetal position on the side walk – needless to say, it’s not pretty.

But with the new Have2P iPhone app, all your problems are solved! Using the phone’s internal GPS, this free application automatically finds available bathrooms in your vicinity in a matter of seconds.

I wonder if the bathrooms are fully stocked with running water, soap and paper towels?
 

A,B,C or red-green for Albuquerque restaurants

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The New Mexico Restaurant Association (NMRA) is not happy with a proposal to switch the current green (pass)/red (fail) inspection disclosure system in Albuquerque to letter grades, reports KRQE.com.

Currently results of restaurant inspections are disclosed to the public using green or red stickers at the establishment, with similar in-compliance/not-in-compliance information available online.  The proposed change would provide consumers with more information than simply pass/fail, awarding establishments a letter grade -A,B,C or U (unsatisfactory) – based on the latest inspection scores.

But the NMRA is opposed to this, and released a statement on their website,

“A health department inspection sheet, while a matter of public record, is really a working document, a snapshot, that is provided by the health department to the restaurant owner and is not designed to serve as a guidepost to the general consumer as to the quality or purity of the food served in restaurants. The fact that a restaurant is open for business indicates that no health hazard exists at that establishment.”

I don’t see how that statement suggests why letter grades would be any different than the pass/fail disclosure system. And the part about “if a business is open there is no health hazard” – not sure about that either, since the association stated inspection is just a snapshot, so how can it ensure consumer safety at all times?

What the association should have suggested is that there is no evidence to support a letter grade system over a pass/fail system in conveying inspection results to the public. And some research indicates that consumers still think in terms of pass/fail, even with more complex disclosure systems.
 

Karaoke to raise awareness of bird flu

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I’m a fan of karaoke. Robert Pattinson and Hugh Jackman are fans of karaoke. And now the form of entertainment that allows amateur singers like myself to perform popular music is a medium for communicating bird flu messages in Cambodia, reports Radio Australia News.

According to the story,

“Cambodian authorities will use a karaoke video starring a popular local singer to try to raise awareness of bird flu. The video is part of a United Nations-sponsored health program, to alert people to the dangers of transporting poultry in the lead-up to the Khmer New Year holiday in mid-April. During the celebrations Cambodians traditionally serve chicken and duck dishes.

The video encourages farmers to wash their hands and keep their poultry pens clean. It urges them to keep children away from poultry, and report sick and dead birds to local authorities.”

Using karaoke as a way to communicate food safety issues is a great idea, and definitely thinking outside the box.
 

Positive approach to poor restaurant reviews

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“THIS PLACE SUCKS” isn’t exactly something you expect to read on the shirt of a server when ordering lunch, but it’s an example of the uniform at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. The restaurant has taken poor comments published on Yelp, a public review website, and made t-shirts out of them, reports The New York Times (see picture, right, from the article).

[W]hen customers order a margherita pizza with fior di latte mozzarella, tomato and basil, their server might bring it to them wearing a T-shirt that reads: “The pizza was soooo greasy. I am assuming this was in part due to the pig fat” under a rating of one out of five stars.

Anne Stoll, who owns Delfina with her husband Craig Stoll, said,

“We were just having fun with Yelp. It kind of takes the seriousness out of it and pokes fun at it a little bit. We really have no recourse. Anyone can write anything they want on Yelp. There are no checks and balances, so this is our way of being able to have a voice.”

Yelp reviews for Delfina aren’t all bad. A glance at the website shows a fair share of positive review, with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars, though some comments may just be an attempt to get on a shirt  (see right).

Delfina openly discloses poor reviews, turning negative comments into something that gets patrons talking, ultimately creating positive marketing. Restaurants confident in the safety of their product will use a similar approach, making their inspection results public regardless of judicial regulations, and challenging the inspection process. Instead of complaining that inspection is an unfair representation of what goes on in a restaurant, take a proactive approach and disclose these flaws to the public, or in the case of Delfina, flaunt the bad reviews with pride.
 

Restaurant inspection cards: green and clean in Durham region

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Restaurant disclosure systems, like letter grades in L.A. or coloured cards in Toronto, communicate restaurant inspection results to patrons. This week Durham Region in Ontario launched DineSafe, a food safety inspection disclosure program that uses coloured cards to communicate inspection scores. Green, yellow or red cards must be posted at food establishments, similar to the disclosure system in Toronto.

According to newsdurhamregion.com, during the first day 30 restaurants were inspected, with only two receiving yellow cards, and the remainder receiving green cards. 

On Monday March 2, the first round of inspections under DineSafe resulted in two yellow cards, for the Akashia Japanese and Korean restaurant on Kingston Road West in Ajax and Wie Geht’s Amigo on King Avenue East in Newcastle.

Ken Gorman, director of environmental health for Durham, said the Ajax restaurant received a yellow because of the level of cleanliness of food contact surfaces, food storage issues which could result in possible contamination and temperature abuse. The Newcastle restaurant’s citations included food not being stored at the proper temperature, lack of paper towels and soap at the food and hand sink areas and sanitation problems with the floor, walls and equipment.

Both restaurants have been re-inspected and received green cards.

Gorman indicated he expects about 80 per cent of establishments will earn a green this year, and things are going well with the new program. He continued,

"Some people are very excited … one got their green sign and they were cheering and clapping.”

In Durham Region the frequency of restaurant inspection is based on risk. High risk establishments are inspected three times per year, moderate risk twice a year, and low risk once a year. Overall inspection scores determine the colour of the sign issued to an establishment, green indicating a pass, yellow indicating substantial incompliance with provincial rules, and red indicating establishment closure.