Category Archives: Restaurant Inspection

What about microbial food safety? Food industry launches phone-based disclosure amid labeling battle

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Phillip Brasher of Agri Pulse reports the food industry is launching a smartphone-based system that companies hope will satisfy consumer demands for information about genetically engineered ingredients, livestock production methods and other product attributes. 

qr.code.rest.inspection.gradeThe SmartLabel system, which also will allow consumers to find the information on the web as through the phone-based QR code on package labels, is designed in part to address demands for labeling of biotech foods.

“We all have a desire to get the information that consumers want to them,” said Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “We happen to think that electronic disclosure is the very best way to do that.” 

The Hershey Co. will be the first company to adopt the SmartLabel in coming weeks.

Now adapt it for microbial food safety – the things that actually make people sick.

‘Dead man’s tray’ a food safety safegaurd

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Every weekday in an elementary school kitchen in Fargo, a worker fills a plastic tray with the day’s lunch offerings and seals, labels and places it in a freezer – all in the name of food safety.

dead.man's.trayA similar process goes on for every meal at the Cass County Jail and at a facility in Dilworth, Minn., where food for Clay County Jail inmates is prepared. The meals are saved for about a week. When the oldest tray comes out, a new one goes in.

The jails and Fargo Public Schools are among a handful of institutions in the Fargo-Moorhead area that collect a sample tray in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak. If two or more people get sick after eating the same meal, a tray of food can be retrieved and tested for pathogens such as salmonella, norovirus or E. coli.

Deb Laber, director of nutrition services at Fargo schools, said the district began making a “fail safe tray” last year at Bennett Elementary; Fargo North High School was added this year.

Capt. Andrew Frobig, administrator at the Cass County Jail, said it is common, though, in his line of work.

“It’s an industry practice,” Frobig said.

Known in some circles as a sample or dummy tray, this food-safety process is commonly referred to in jails and prisons as a “dead man’s tray.” In fact, one website that sells food service products to corrections facilities advertises a “Dead Man Box,” a large metal box that can store trays with lids.

30 sick with Campy at private school in New Jersey

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The Warren County Health Department has confirmed the presence of several Campylobacter infections at Blair Academy, a private high school in Blairstown, where about 80 per cent of its 460 students board at the school.

blair.academy.njPeter Summers, Warren County health officer, said that “a few” of the tests that were sent out to labs came back positive for campylobacter after approximately 30 people had reported becoming ill since mid-November.

Officials at Blair Academy could not be reached for comment, but Summers said he believed parents of students were notified of the infection within the last week or so.

Environmental health specialists: the salt of the earth

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There are some really good people in state and local health departments throughout the world.

Environmental heath specialists, public health inspectors, hygiene officers – whatever they might be called – are some of the most fun food safety nerds to hang out with; there’s not another group of folks I interact with who are consistently as passionate about public health as they are.Unknown

As Keith and Mick sing, they are the salt of the earth.

They impact food safety everyday.

Tragic events in San Bernardino earlier this week affected many individuals and families; including the public health family.

 

UK curry house poisons 32 and ‘kills one woman’ with a chicken biryani

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Two curry house owners poisoned 32 people with a chicken biryani – and may have also caused one woman’s death.

Karachi Karahi in PlaistowKamran Memon and his wife Farhana Memon, who run Karachi Karahi in Plaistow, East London, provided the buffet at a Sindhi event – despite repeatedly ignoring food safety warnings.

A 39-year-old woman died the day after the August 2013 celebration.

But health officials were not alerted until four days after the outbreak so a full post-mortem examination was not carried out.

As a result there was insufficient medical evidence to present to the jury when the owners were prosecuted, Newham Council said.

The cause of the woman’s death was given as bowel ischemia and heart attack.

More than 140 people from all over the country and abroad attended but the following day several of the guests fell ill.

The Barking Road eatery was inspected the next day, with environmental health officers taking food samples for analysis.

The restaurant was immediately banned from providing outside catering.

The owners were also found to have ignored two improvement notices for breaching food safety rules.

The couple pleaded guilty to charges of failing to maintain a proper food safety management system and properly train staff.

A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court found the pair guilty of supplying unsafe food.

Journalism works: Philly restaurants get same-day health inspections

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Philadelphia this week joined other major American cities in publicly releasing same-day restaurant inspection reports rather than waiting a month, a policy critics said kept diners in the dark about potential health risks.

rocky.phillyFor the last three decades, diners in Philadelphia have unknowingly patronized restaurants cited for serious hygiene problems including mouse droppings, improperly refrigerated food and managers oblivious of the basic tenets of food safety.

Health department officials said the city’s longstanding 30-day secrecy policy was meant to give eatery owners time to challenge inspection results. Yet it was a practice that surprised health officials in other big cities.

The same-day release of inspection results follows an Inquirer/Philly.com report that found Philadelphia was the only major city in the United States to withhold results for a significant length of time. The results are available from the city, or more conveniently, on the Clean Plates website: philly.com/cleanplates.

This week, health department sanitarians dropped in on dozens of eateries throughout the city. Among the most sharply criticized were a Drexel University dining hall, two South Philly watering holes and an upscale burger joint in Center City.

Florida food truck ‘Roach egg sack floating in the steam table’ and no license

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Doug Trovillion, owner of the Orlando, Florida food truck named Kona Dog, might want to purchase some RAID and get a license because according to recent inspections, he has neither.

food.truckHis food truck, Kona Dog food truck, was inspected on August 19th & 20th, during which time the inspectors found several violations including operating without a license (twice), a roach egg sack floating in the steam table, 11 live roaches observed by the inspector, the operator killing two roaches with his bare hands  then touching a pack of hot dogs without washing his hands among many, many other violations.

Below is a list of all violations noted during Trovillion’s August 19 & 20 inspections.

You can read these inspections in full here.

It was the mousse: 21 sickened with E. coli O157 linked to Nevada producer

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An E. coli outbreak that sickened nearly two dozen people and prompted a restaurant in south Reno to voluntarily close has been linked to a dessert food manufactured, sold, and distributed by Reno Provisions, the Washoe County Health District announced Friday afternoon.

ccmarquis22“Our epidemiologists and environmental health staff have identified a dessert that was prepared by Reno Provisions,” Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick said in a news release. “Several people who ate at the Twisted Fork restaurant had the dessert, as did some other people outside the Reno area who then developed the E. coli infection. That commonality led investigators to the dessert supplier, and to tests of food and equipment at Reno Provisions.”

In a prepared statement released Friday, Mark Estee, owner of Reno Provisions, said, in part: “Reno Provisions has taken aggressive steps to make sure its facilities are safe and meet and exceed all food preparation standards … we offer our deepest apologies to all who have been effected by this outbreak. The entire Reno Provisions team has been working tirelessly to solve this problem and ensure that it never happens again.”

The Health District said it will now shift its investigation from the restaurant to the manufacturer. The Health District confirmed that all of the remaining desserts associated with e-coli contaminations have been disposed of.

Since mid-October, 21 confirmed or probable cases of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported in Washoe County.

The owner of Reno Provisions says the the E. coli outbreak has been traced back to a small batch of the restaurant’s Chocolate Marquis Mousse, which “has since been disposed of and discontinued.”

The owner of Reno Provisions says the the E. coli outbreak has been traced back to a small batch of the restaurant’s Chocolate Marquis Mousse, which “has since been disposed of and discontinued.”

Sushi can suck: Aussie shop found with cockroaches, temperature, cleanliness problems

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A Woden sushi shop is facing hefty fines after health authorities uncovered a cockroach infestation, a dishwasher that was repeatedly recycling dirty water and an overheated display cabinet. 

sushiFood safety inspectors first raided the now-closed Sizzle Bento store in Woden Plaza in May 2011, finding a host of breaches that potentially put customers at risk. 

Cockroaches were seen in the food preparation area and gaps in the walls, ceilings and floors were said to be allowing the insects to crawl into the room.

The sushi display cabinet was being kept at warm temperatures of about 10 degrees, instead of the recommended five degrees or less, court documents said.

The kitchen and food preparation area was dirty and grease was building up on the ceiling, sprinklers, the fridge, and on floors.

Rice and other food was not being stored properly and the shop was warned not to store items in shopping bags, ice cream containers or plastic bins. 

A second inspection was conducted in September 9, 2011, and cleanliness and food storage problems were again detected.

The business had to be shut down temporarily due to drainage problems with the dishwasher, which prosecutors say were causing dirty water to be recycled through the machine, leaving dishes dirty and unsafe.

It was allowed to resume trading five days later. 

How will this be inspected? Best will market food safety; new food apps could see home cooks takeout takeaways

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No one invites me for dinner; they know I’m a food safety asshole (who carries a tip-sensitive digital thermometer in his backpack).

sp.food.safety.assholes.oct.13I don’t like charity cooking, I don’t like when I don’t know how the food was prepared, and I don’t like sausage sizzles, apparently part of Australian culture.

I want to celebrate food, I want to eat and share stories, but there are so many tales every day of people messing up the basics.

When we went to a (ice) hockey tournament a couple of months ago, I volunteered to call up the local health types and ensure a sausage sizzle was OK.

Sure, as long as it’s for charity.

I had to take a 16 hour course to coach little kids in hockey in Australia (because my Canadian experience didn’t count) but needed nothing to prepare food that could sicken those same little kids.

So this seems like a bad idea.

We could soon be bidding farewell to the fish and chip shop and saying ta-ta to the takeaway Thai if a plan to transform the way we eat, in the same way Uber has shaken up how we travel, takes off.

food.safety.asshole.schaffnerAnd, industry experts have warned that if restaurants don’t find a way to respond to the challenge they will be the losers as Australians turn to their next door neighbours for dinner rather than head out to the local takeaway.

However, there are concerns bureaucratic red tape could halt any moves to create a new future of food in its tracks.

Last week, 100 of Australia’s ‘foodie-prenuers’ gathered in Sydney for HackFood, a meeting place to thrash out the most innovative ideas to transform the food industry.

One of the most promising initiatives to emerge for the gathering, and one that is already in development, could see Australians turning their backs on takeout forever.

“It’s the UberX and Airbnb of home cooked meals,” said Jennifer Callaghan of the HomeCooked app she has created with partner Josh MacNamara.

Ms Callaghan said there were currently three options for people to eat: prepare at home, eat at a restaurant or order takeout. The new app added a fourth choice — local people cooking dinner for you.

“A home cook could say I’m going to make 10 servings of Thai green curry on a certain date and the person wanting to eat could flick through and see what’s cooking in their local area.

“You could request and pick it up then or order ahead for another day,” said Ms Callaghan who envisaged busy professionals stopping by their neighbours for takeaway containers of Indian goat curry or mac and cheese on the way home from work.

dp.food.safety.asshole.oct.13While similar apps, such as MyTable, are available in countries such as the US and India, she said no such technology existed in Australia.

According to IBISWorld the Australian takeaway food industry has annual revenues of $4bn and employs around 15,000 people with Eagle Boys and Domino’s some of the biggest players.

The business partners had done research that showed 80 per cent of people in inner city neighbourhoods would be open to buying a home cooked meal from a neighbour as an alternative to a takeaway.

Students and stay-at-home mums might jump at the idea of cooking for other local people, said Ms Callaghan who hope to launch HomeCooked in early 2016.

However, the challenges to this new way of eating are significant with established players unlikely to welcome a digital newcomer disrupting the status quo and food safety regulations designed around traditional food outlets.

Last year, Bunbury schoolgirl Chelsea-lee Downes found her roadside stall selling lemonade and cupcakes shut down by the local council because the food was produced in a domestic rather than commercial kitchen.

All cooks would have to take out insurance and there would be a “verification process” similar to that used by Airbnb, said Ms Callaghan. But she admitted the legality of selling food cooked up in a standard kitchen was unclear. “It’s a grey area and we’re talking to people in the industry around the ways of overcoming those areas but there has been a paradigm shift in how we access transport, lifestyle, and now food and things are changing no matter what,” she said.

you're.just.an.asshole.dudeManaging principal of food compliance specialists FoodLegal, Joe Lederman, told news.com.au regulations covering food preparation varied from place to place. “It’s a question of attitude, some regulators are in the business of encouraging new business and some are hostile to anyone who’s not commercial.

“It’s a similar experience with taxis, in some places they are more open and others take the approach it’s not the way forward and should not be done.”