Author Archives: Katie Filion

A Canadian in New Zealand: Cartwheeling in sheep poo

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This weekend during a mini-adventure an hour north I got to tick two things off my Things to do in New Zealand list: drive on the left side of the road and pet a lamb. While the former turned out to be easier than initially presumed (aside from roundabouts), it was the latter that had me giddy.

Hills covered in sheep were everywhere and I couldn’t resist the temptation to hop a fence (despite the electrical shock endured) and cartwheel the fields (right), scaring sheep and likely placing my hands in sheep poo. I didn’t wash them, though I really should have.

Sheep, like cows and goats, are ruminant mammals and therefore can carry E. coli O157:H7. If you cartwheel in [sheep] doo doo, wash your hands.

Not so sunny findings in the Sunshine State’s grocery stores

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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.
 

OHIO: Tommy’s Pizza cooks up critical violations

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While on house arrest nursing my burnt foot I’ve become somewhat of a whiz in the kitchen. Using Doug’s recipe I’ve made homemade pizza at least four times in the past week, much to the delight of my flatmates.

In Columbus, Ohio a local pizza shop is facing Columbus Public Health after four inspections reported thirteen critical violations – those violations most likely to pose a health hazard – reports NBC 4.

Columbus Public Health (CPH) recommended a local pizza shop’s license be suspended for at least three days after four inspections with numerous critical violations.
Tommy’s Pizza, located at 3020 E. Broad St., was inspected several times during a four-month period and had numerous critical food-safety violations.

CPH inspectors were at Tommy’s Pizza May 21, and found one critical violation: cold-holding of potentially hazardous foods. A second inspection was held Tuesday, June 9, and two critical violations were found, including violations of cold-holding of potentially dangerous foods and unsafe food was not discarded.

A yellow sign, [indicating the business is in the enforcement process due to uncorrected violations] was posted at the shop June 12.

A follow-up inspection on June 19 found seven critical violations, [including unsafe food not discarded and improper employee handwashing]. Another inspection was held July 8, with three critical violations, including violations of cold-holding of potentially dangerous foods, food employee touching ready-to-eat foods with bare hands and potentially hazardous foods not being reheated to the proper temperature.
CPH recommended Tommy’s Pizza’s license be suspended for at least three days and the shop be placed on increased monitoring for 120 days.

In Columbus inspection results are available online, here, and at the premise in the form of colored cards.

Do you wash your hands during mid-night bathroom breaks?

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During an episode of the TV show The Office Michael Scott burns his foot on a George Foreman grill while cooking bacon (see right). I did the exact same thing this past weekend, and now my bubble-wrapped foot and I have been tossing and turning at night.

Last night while wallowing in self-pity and pain I heard two of my flatmates get up to use the bathroom (my bedroom is right next to the facilities). I heard the bathroom door shut, toilet flush, and…nothing. No sound of the tap running while the night-pee-ers washed their hands.

Do you wash your hands during a mid-night tinkle?
 

Red Green (and yellow) in Sarnia, ON

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Embarrassing as it is to admit, I used to watch the somewhat popular Canadian Red Green show (pictured right) – it really reminds me of my Uncle Bob. According to The Observer online, Sarnia may soon be adopting a green-yellow-red colour coded restaurant disclosure system similar to Toronto (pictured below).

Mayor Mike Bradley is determined that residents and local visitors will know exactly how Sarnia- Lambton restaurants fare in health and safety inspections by taking a quick glance in the front window.

A green card in a restaurant would signal that Ontario food safety laws are being followed. A yellow sign would indicate it’s safe to eat there but non-critical violations need to be corrected. If it’s red, an immediate hazard is present and the restaurant is closed.

Currently, the health unit posts on its website the names of restaurants convicted of food safety violations. The convictions website only deals with the most serious violations.

But mayor Bradley is not happy with just that, saying,

"We have a lot of tourists here and they aren’t going to check a website. This is a public health issue. Why are we so reluctant to implement a simple system?"

Explaining that he has the support of the public, Bradley said,

“I will tell you this: I’ve never had opposition from restaurateurs. They understand this is to their benefit."

The proposed colour-coded disclosure system is similar to those operating in Toronto and London, ON already — copycat scores-on-doors programs are common. When the city of Auckland, New Zealand implemented a letter grading scheme similar systems popped up throughout the rest of the country. L.A.’s popular grading scheme has trickled throughout the U.S. with many jurisdictions adopting similar systems; and in Connecticut the various creepy symbols are spanning districts.
 

Drinks, dancing and food hygiene grades

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After a night on the town Saturday my flatmate Holly (see right) and I stopped at for a kebab at Sahara Cafe. While Holly ordered her falafel kebab I perused the establishment and spotted the shop’s most recent inspection certificate: Excellent. So, being the food safety nerd that I am, I took a picture (below).

In Wellington, New Zealand restaurants that demonstrate high food safety standards receive an Excellent certificate to display at the premise.

A grade laughs with Dane Cook

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Rhys Darby, or Murray off of Flight of the Conchords is hilarious. Last night I watched one of his stand-up routines and nearly peed my pants I was laughing so hard. I then proceeded to watch Dane Cook – Isolated Incident. It was not as funny; however, the venue for the routine, the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, CA appeared to have received an A-grade during its inspection (see picture, right).

In L.A. food establishments are awarded an A, B, or C grade based on their most recent inspection score, and are required to display this grade in a visible location (like a window or door). The grades are also available online, here.

I wouldn’t award Dane an A for laughter, but my buddy Rhys on the other hand, he’s all A’s. I hope to get see him in November when he pops by Wellington.
 

Aye mate, there’s an app for that!

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Whether it’s a personal poop tracking system or toilet locations you’re after it seems there’s an iPhone app for that. The latest in cool apps is a restaurant inspection disclosure application developed for New South Wales in Australia, reports the Sydney Morning Herald Online.

A new iPhone app will tell you if a nearby restaurant has been fined for breach of food safety standards. The application, FoodWatch NSW, brings the Food Authority’s name-and-shame list to your fingertips by using the iPhone’s GPS to show you a list of restaurants near your location that have been added to the list.

The tool gives the user the ability to view the list any time, wherever the user is.
Some of the main features include a map where one can view, pan and zoom around to all the nearby penalised restaurants. And just like the Food Authorities’ name and shame list, it won’t show penalties that are older than 12 months…

Chief executive officer of the company that generated the app, Keith Ahern, said

"While I think a lot of restaurants aren’t happy about it [the list], you can see the information and make your own decision.”

The free app uses information from the NSW Food Authority website, located here.

Let’s throw another shrimp on the barbie!

Australia: Diners discuss disgusting dinners

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The Age in Australia posted some crack-up, some gross, reader responses to last week’s "Tables of horror” story, found below. My favourite is Spoon discrimination.

Cockroaches ‘no surprise’
I had a terrible experience at a Fitzroy restaurant. The meal itself was very enjoyable, until we noticed baby cockroaches crawling all over the table, our plate and our food… When I finally did bring it to the attention [of the wait staff] , the waiter initially responded well by apologising and not charging us for the food.
Then he did something that simply made our blood boil: he starting defending it, first by saying that customers should not, under any circumstances, get upset at restaurants! He said we did not understand the food business and his restaurant career was littered with such stories. The building was old, he explained, and therefore cockroaches should be no surprise… The waiter’s arrogance was even more upsetting than the cockroaches.
-Steven Yatomi-Clarke, West Preston

Maggots removed
Four years ago my wife and I went to a well-known vegetarian restaurant and in one of the dishes the dates contained maggots. We discreetly told the waiter, so as not to cause a scene. The dish was removed, but what came back didn’t appear to be a new dish, just the old one with the dates removed. We were given a free mint tea or a free dessert, but no particularly sincere apology from the wait staff for this rather obvious breach of health standards. We have never been back.
-David Sheehan, Oak Park

Too tough for what?
We ordered a lamb curry at a well-known Indian restaurant and the lamb was too tough to eat (this occasionally happens even in good Indian restaurants). On complaining to the waiter, the chef came out to our table, stuck his hand into the bowl, grabbed a piece of lamb, tore it in two with his bare hands and said: "There, it’s not too tough!" We weren’t convinced.
-Michael Rowell, Ararat

Great, but for the worm
WE WENT to a place in Brighton that was recommended. We ordered fresh oysters. We had a few. A friend held one of the oysters, when a pinkish red worm crawled out of the flesh of the oyster, climbed up the shell. She screamed…
-Caroline Arman, East St Kilda

Spoon discrimination
NOT really a tale of horror, but bizarre standards . . . I was recently having a regular lunch at a city restaurant, and on ordering dessert was surprised when the waitress placed a soup spoon in front of me. When I queried it, her reply was, "We don’t discriminate between spoons here, they are all the same to us." There was then a pause, and she rather grudgingly asked me if I wanted her to change it to a dessert spoon — to which I said yes. I was made to feel it was unreasonable to use a dessert spoon! Have the rules of dining changed?
-Claire Mitchell, Northcote

Only A grades on Shortland Street

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While living in Doug and Amy’s basement I watched a lot of bad TV – we all did. Since moving to New Zealand little has changed. Instead of the Real Housewives of New York or DOOL, I now watch Shortland Street every night at 7pm.

Last night while two of the characters were scandalously dining I recognized a restaurant grading card in the background, an A grade. The program is filmed and set in Auckland, New Zealand.
 

The picture is a little shotty, but so is the acting.