Tag Archives: Mammoth Burger

Cocoa Beach closer to dog-dining ordinance

Posted on by
1

Florida Today reports that Cocoa Beach could become the first beachside community in Brevard County, Florida, to allow restaurant patrons to bring their dogs to dinner (instead of leaving them outside in the rain, left).

Tonya Morgan, general manager at The Surf, which brought the request for the ordinance before the commission, said, "We thought that dogs were allowed on the patio. We never realized that we were breaking the law.”

Morgan said they wanted to legally do what they had already been doing at the request of customers, who come to the restaurant patio area with their dogs.

The commission voted 4-1 in favor of the measure. Councilman Ken Griffin, the lone dissenter, said, "I oppose this. I wasn’t raised up eating with dogs."

Doggie dining has pros and cons. The Florida state guidelines seem like a reasonable compromise.

Beer tampering mystery solved; Bob and Doug fingered

Posted on by
Reply

If Canadian cattle or chickens or pigs get sick, the public is told all about it. If Canadian people get sick, not so much.

Like the salmonella in fruit salad outbreak from summer 2006, in which 41 culture-confirmed Salmonella serotype Oranienburg infections were diagnosed in persons in 10 northeastern U.S. states and one Canadian province. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports in a summary report today that the culprit was likely cantaloupe, served in fruit salad in health care facilities.

As Ben Chapman and I have written (left, not exactly as shown) it’s not the first time Canadians have been told about food safety problems in Canada by U.S. authorities. But you know all those folks at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada and that Canadian Food Inspection Agency are very important and busy people.

But there are a couple of areas where Canadians shine.

Hundreds can be sickened by food in Canada — like the 650 sickened in southern Ontario in fall 2005 by Salmonella in fresh sprouts — and no one will get sued. Sicken a Canadian’s pet, like with the melamine-contaminated pet food earlier this year, and Canadians are first in the lawsuit line.

But Canada’s real strength is beer.

Canadian Press reports today that Labatt breweries has solved the mystery of how some tainted bottles of Stella Artois were served to customers in Toronto and Kamloops, B.C.

Labatt corporate affairs vice president Neil Sweeney says the company created several displays for the beer and one of its suppliers filled the display bottles with concentrated alcohol.

Sweeney says, after speaking with thousands of bar owners across the country, Labatt discovered that some of the displays had been dismantled and the bottles placed behind the bars and eventually served to customers.

Labatt and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned consumers in July about cases of suspected tampering after ethanol was found in bottles of Stella Artois beer.

Several people drank some of the ethanol, although no one became ill.

Sweeney says settlements have been negotiated with some of the customers but he is not revealing how much compensation has been paid.

Oh, and at the wine and cheese festival at Disney in Orlando on the weekend, Amy and I went to the Canadian booth, where they were serving Labatt’s Blue.

I said to the Canadian behind the tap, "Blue is the best we can do?"

He directed me to another stand that at least had Moosehead.

It’s undercooked… or is it?

Posted on by
Reply

Almost two weeks ago Top Chef’s cheftestant Sara M. was sent home after two consecutive undercooked dishes. Admittedly, her halibut in the Quickfire challenge was raw in the middle, but she didn’t agree that she served raw chicken at the French Culinary Institute. She told the judges, “I sliced the chicken myself, and I checked every single one,” and to her colleagues she insisted, “That chicken was not $#%-in raw, cause I cut every single one.” Still, Judge Gail Simmons said her chicken was pink, and as the night went on, her chicken became raw in the retelling.

Does the chicken in this picture look cooked to you? Color is a lousy indicator of the doneness of chicken. The pictured chicken comes from Pete Snyder, meat thermometer guru, and has been cooked to the required 165 F. Sara would have had a stronger case, had her flavors not been off, by using a meat thermometer and having hard evidence to back up her dish. Cutting the chicken and visually checking the internal temperature is not a proven food safety method.

Just yesterday the National Pork Board reportedly began their case for lowering the recommended cooking temperatures for pork from the currently approved 160F. Board member Steve Larsen said, "We’ve conducted an initial retail study and risk assessment, and the science of safety is definitely there to support the lowering." How would you know your pork is a few degrees off from optimal taste and safe cooking temperature just by looking at it? Ask pork superstar cheftestant Howie. He won once with perfectly cooked lamb chops that were verified with a thermometer.

Kansas State: Football and food safety

Posted on by
1

After defeating a ranked University of Texas team two years in a row — this time a 41-21 thumping last night in Austin — Kansas State is ranked 24 in the Associated Press poll, its first national ranking in years.

K-State will be home next Saturday to cross-state rivals, University of Kansas, and superfan Amy — who took time out from the Orlando itinerary to watch the entire Texas game at the ESPN Zone — and I will be there.

The concessions at the KState football stadium are inspected by the Manhattan-Riley County Health Department. Each week, The Manhattan Mercury publishes the results of restaurant inspections. Last week, the results from the concession stands inspected were relatively good, with the major violation being hot food held at too cool temperatures. Tailgating for the sold out game will bring its own risks, but we’ll be there, digital, tip-sensitive thermometers in hand.

Curb Your Enthusiasm again features L.A.’s restaurant inspection grades

Posted on by
Reply

I never liked the television series, Seinfeld.

During it’s original run from 1989 — 1998, I rarely watched, and when I did, found the characters self-indulgent and whiny. Which they were. It just wasn’t that funny.

Curb Your Enthusiasm by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David is much better.

For the second week now of the new season, the Los Angeles restaurant inspection signs — in both cases A — are prominently displayed.

Tonight, as Larry is waiting to get ice cream behind a sample abuser — someone who asks to sample every flavor available — a big L.A. restaurant inspection A is displayed in the window (thanks, Reece, for finding this pic).

Larry won’t however take the $50 he is owed in a golf bet from the newly orphaned Marty Funkhouser after the death of his mother, preceded by the death of his father last year, because of its dodgy microbiological quality after being removed from the insole of Marty’s jogging shoe.

Larry also says that the customer is usually "a moron and an a**hole."

But they pay. And they like their restaurant inspection disclosure letters (L.A.), colors (Toronto), or smiley faces (Denmark).

Orlando, this is directed at you.

Intervention: it’s not just a bad TV show, it’s a new type of restaurant inspection enforcement

Posted on by
1

Gee’s Garden Bistro, 1145 N. Alvernon Way, Tuscon, Arizona, failed an unannounced restaurant inspection July 17. And a re-inspection July 27; and Aug. 8 and Aug. 21.

So the Pima County Health Department tried a new strategy – intervention.

Sharon Browning, director of Pima County’s Consumer Health and Food Safety unit, told the Tucson Citizen that Gee’s is the first restaurant to go through the county’s intervention program, devised in 2002, stating,

"It’s not like a last resort, but it’s close. We’re trying to allow these people to stay open while they make significant changes, and it’s a tool that’s been in our toolbox, but one we’d never used until now."

The intervention period will include unannounced inspections at irregular intervals through January, at which point the restaurant could regain its regular license or have it revoked.

Ontario region calls for mandatory food service training

Posted on by
Reply

Niagara Region politicians are calling on the province to make food safety preparation training mandatory for everyone in Ontario employed in the preparation and serving of food to the public.

The story says that the move comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents this summer of food poisoning in Niagara.

The region is also forging ahead with its own plans for a bylaw to require mandatory safety training for food handlers and servers. That’s expected to come later this year or early next year. But regional politicians said the best solution would be a provincewide rule requiring mandatory training.

We agree.

"Parenting and preparing food are about the only two activities that no longer require some kind of certification in Western countries. For example, to coach little girls playing ice hockey in Canada requires 16 hours of training. To coach kids on a travel team requires an additional 24 hours of training.

"It’s unclear how many illnesses can be traced to restaurants, but every week there is at least one restaurant-related outbreak reported in the news media somewhere. Cross-contamination, lack of handwashing and improper cooking or holding temperatures are all common themes in these outbreaks — the very same infractions that restaurant operators and employees should be reminded of during training sessions, and are judged on during inspections. Some jurisdictions — such as the city of Fort Worth, Texas — place so much importance on teaching these lessons they require mandatory food handler licenses and have invested in an infrastructure of training that demonstrates the city’s commitment to public health. Other cities and states have no training requirement.

"There should be mandatory food handler training, for say, three hours, that could happen in school, on the job, whatever. But training is only a beginning. Just because you tell someone to wash the poop off their hands before they prepare salad for 100 people doesn’t mean it is going to happen; weekly outbreaks of hepatitis A confirm this. There are a number of additional carrots and sticks that can be used to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food and a work environment that rewards hygienic behavior. But mandating basic training is a start."

Spinach and leafy greens: one year later

Posted on by
Reply

USA Today writers Elizabeth Weise and Julie Schmit report in a Pulitzer-worthy series of features and stories today about the fall 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak related to bagged spinach.

The stories provide an excellent overview of the problems with fresh produce, the impacts on the industry, and the devastating effects on those sickened.

There’s a variety of solutions offered, but no are really effective. To really create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, start marketing food safety at retail.

Recipe for success: Talking food safety in Illinois

Posted on by
Reply

Continuing to expose iFSN’s hard work and dedication to developing a culture of food safety, I’m seated in a hotel conference room in Champaign, IL for the second day of the 8th Annual Food Safety Symposium sponsored by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

Yesterday I spoke to an audience of about 300 government and industry types about: Pushing the Boundaries: Influencing a Culture of Food Safety. The response to some of the stuff that our group is saying (Don’t Eat Poop) and doing (delivering eccentric messages, using new technology portals and online social networks) drew an impressive response from the crowd.

From a fan e-mail:

I am attending a Food Safety Symposium here in Champaign, Illinois … I teach food safety for a Burger KIng Franchise here in Illinois, and cannot wait to add some of your stuff to my classes. I work with so many young people, and iFSN’s approach to situations made them down to earth and real. Thanks for the great ideas. I’m a Grandma … so I really need to stay attached to you guys to keep my classes fresh and UTD. LOVED IT!

Fancy restaurant didn’t know how to cool food; three sickened

Posted on by
Reply

In one of the lamest food safety excuses ever tabled, defence lawyer Adrian Gundelach told the Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday — with a straight face — that Harem Restaurant, routinely left dishes out to cool at room temperature for eight hours, stating,

"It was something that my clients couldn’t have foreseen. They’d been following a practice that they’ve been following since the day the restaurant opened."

That practice led to three people barfing up Clostridium perfringens after dining at the upscale Brisbane eatery in July. An additional 16 people at the function also reported symptoms, but were not confirmed after failing to return health sample kits to Queensland Health.

The Harem restaurant in Brisbane, Australia, is listed in the Best Restaurants Guide of Australia as follows:

"Be an Ottoman prince for the evening: sit on sumptuous cushions shrouded by curtains, feast on finger food and enjoy a night of belly-shaking. There’s no confusion as to what type of restaurant Harem is; the dining room is a riot of handmade rugs, multi-coloured tablecloths, brass lamps and cushions, all imported from Turkey, and the carpeted floorspace is patrolled by fez-hatted wait staff."

The judge wasn’t amused and fined the restaurant $20,000.

The restaurant has since changed its cooling techniques.

Pay more attention to food safety basics and less food pornography.