Tag Archives: food cart

Durham County health department looking at mobile vendors

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Some of my favorite people are environmental health specialists. Between routine, unscheduled inspections of restaurants and institutions, many spend time working with individuals and small businesses to ensure that they make and sell food safely – and legally. According to WUNC.org, Durham County (NC) environmental health folks are looking to mobile vendors to ensure that they are inspected and are following food safety rules.

The Durham County Department of Public Health wants consumers to know if food from mobile food vendors is coming from somebody who has a permit to sell it.

Environmental Health Director Christopher Salter said the department is also working to inform vendors of food safety regulations, which bar home food prep and selling from a stand without a permit.

Salter said there are 126 mobile food units acting legally in the county. They are heavily scrutinized for healthy food preparation and storage practices. Salter said these vendors not only pose a health risk, but they undercut the businesses of food vendors who follow the legal channels.

“I know that they’re just trying to make a living, they’re trying to get by,” Salter said. “But we have the rules and regulations and what’s right and wrong, and bottom line is we have to protect the public health.”

And it’s not just the mobile vendors, as I peruse my Facebook feed and the Wake Forest Community Information page, there’s food that folks are selling out of their homes. Like cupcakes and pesto.

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A B C; New York City food carts should also be rated with ‘stupid letter grades’

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Restaurant owners in New York City want food carts to also be “embarrassed like we are with these stupid letter grades.”

Vinnie Mazzone, who owns Chicken Masters, also said, “If you are cooking, preparing and storing perishable items, there should be a letter grade on your cart. No question about it.”

George Constantinou, 35, co-owner of Bogata Latin Bistro, told Metro, “I think it’s only fair that they be graded like restaurants,” said in Park Slope. “The public can get sick if they eat at a restaurant, a food cart or even a convenience store.”

Food trucks are regularly inspected by the Health Department, but city restaurateurs are backing a bill that they say would level the playing field.

Queens state Sen. Jose Peralta plans to introduce a bill this week that would require the Health Department assign letter grades to food carts, letting New Yorkers know where the cleanest carts are — and which to avoid.

One cart owner said applying the same standards for five-star restaurants, which have larger staff and space, to vendors, "makes no sense.”

Rex Velasquez who runs a food cart downtown, called it a good idea. “At least you know if the cart is clean or not. I always keep my cart clean, so it doesn’t matter to me.”

NYC food-cart guy in $90,000 health violation name game

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The New York Post reports a food-cart vendor repeatedly changed his identity to evade $90,000 in health violations.

Ayman Metwally, 31, would take on a new identity and apply for a new vendor license rather than renewing his old one every two years.

He even altered his Social Security number twice by writing over the digits in pen, adding curves to a “6” to form a sloppy “8,” according to the Health Department.

In 2005, Metwally was hit with 42 health-code violations, including not having a place to wash his hands in the cart. By the time his license was up in 2009, he had added 31 more.

New York mayor wants letter grades for food carts

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The New York Daily News reports that the new system of grading city restaurants has been such a success Mayor Bloomberg said Monday that he wants to expand it to the city’s roving fleet of food carts.

"Personally, I would love to see before I buy from a cart a sign up there telling whether or not the guy washed his hands before he reaches in and pulls out the hot dog, Bloomberg said at an event trumpeting the benefits of letter grades for city eateries.

"I love to eat from the street vendors too," he said.

However, Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said, "It is more complicated because (the carts) are not always out there," Farley said.

Bloomberg crowed that since the city instituted the letter-grading system a year ago, Big Apple restaurant have been spared $3 million in fines by earning A-grades.

While overall fines shot up from $32 million to $42 million, Bloomberg said the bite would have been worse if restaurants making fast improvements hadn’t had their fines waived.