When I was eleven my parents took me to Disney World in Florida. I don’t remember much about the trip other than we rode space mountain, went to Epcot, and did the backlot tram tour at what was then called MGM Studios.
And I remember the burger I had one night at a restaurant on International Drive.
It was the juiciest, tastiest burger I had ever had.
It was really undercooked, I ordered it medium rare.
I don’t think ordering burgers undercooked was an option in Ontario. I had never been offered a choice before.
No one told me or my parents that there was increased risk of illness eating undercooked meat. Maybe there was a consumer advisory on the menu. But probably not, I don’t remember seeing it. This was 1989, before Jack-in-the-Box. After McDonalds in 1982.
While golfing at IAFP in 2005, Doug and I were in line for burgers in-between the front and back nine. The cook asked the group in front of us how they wanted their burgers. One guy responded, “Bloody … with cheese.”
No one said anything about the risks.
Over the next nine holes we talked about servers as risk communicators, figuring out what they knew, what they said and how to get better information to patrons.
Years later, as part of a USDA CAP grant Ellen Thomas would lead the first part of this work and found that servers aren’t great at helping folks makes informed decisions (more on that when the paper comes out).
Sometimes managers and owners try to get their customers information by signing a disclaimer; I wonder what kind of risk information is in the documents.
The Kingswood Arms in Waterhouse Lane was downgraded from a 5 to a 1 following a visit in February, a decision that has left landlord Tony Slayford furious.
He told the Mirror: “That is the only reason why we went to number 1, which I am absolutely disgusted about. They were happy with all the cleanliness. Everything is spot on.”
The pub has been offering burgers cooked medium-to-rare for more than five years, but has always asked customers to sign a disclaimer beforehand.
