Tag Archives: restaurant

Jason Bradley: What did I just see you do with my sandwich

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Failures in food hygiene are presented commonly. I experienced this while picking up my lunch recently in Springfield, Missouri. This quaint bar and grill near Sequiota Park presented me with the decision to eat it or not.

The chicken salad sandwich was excellent but watching the preparation was not excellent. The chicken salad mix was covered but sat on the prep counter at room temperature. The owner, I assume, spooned the salad mix onto a croissant that he had just bare handedly cut and separated into two halves. He patted the two halves back together when finished and he pushed the spewing excess back into the seams. He set the creation into a to-go box, piled a few potato chips on top (again bare handed), and got a pickle from somewhere (it wasn’t from a jar). He served it with a kind-of-a-smile that I hope does not cost me in the future.

Breaks in food hygiene protocol can cause significant discomfort to a large number of patrons. Bare hands and improperly-kept utensils can transfer foodborne-illness-causing bacteria to the prepared food or from potentially hazardous foods to ready-to-eat items. When a food preparer handles money, works the cash register, or touches the face or body while wearing gloves, the potential for contamination of ready-to-eat foods is also high.

A simple breech in food hygiene is not so simple to correct. The process of food safety is complicated and there is a constant vigilance required to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness.
 

Cockroaches, vermin and band-aid: Brisbane eateries fined 200K for past food safety infractions

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More than $200,000 worth of fines have been handed out to eateries caught breaching food safety laws in 2007 and 2009.

The Courier-Mail says court documents show in the past six months nine restaurants were found guilty in a magistrates court for the breaches.

Company Wheylite Australia Pty Ltd received the heaviest penalty, fined $50,000 after being found guilty of nine breaches relating to unsafe food practices and a vermin infestation during an inspection in October 2007. A conviction was recorded.

A&C Business Development Pty Ltd, which held the food licence for Ryutaro Japanese Restaurant at Sunnybank, was fined $29,000 for 29 breaches relating to cockroaches and poor food storage in June 2009. No conviction was recorded.

Hedz No.4 Pty Ltd, which held the food business licence for the Everton Park Hotel, was fined $25,000 for 13 breaches, including cockroaches in the venue between March and May 2009. No conviction was recorded.

Erinwell Pty Ltd, which owned the food business licence for Oasis Juice Bar in the CBD, was fined $20,000 after a Band-Aid was found in a carrot juice in June 2009. No conviction was recorded against the venue.

Did you just vomit or are you my waiter? Or both

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Do people prepare and serve food at restaurants and other forms of food service, while barfing or crapping?

They sure do.

Is that a risk factor for disease transmission?

Depends.

A bunch of U.S. researchers interviewed 491 food workers and their managers (n = 387) in nine states and found that 12 per cent of workers said they had worked while suffering vomiting or diarrhea on two or more shifts in the previous year.

“Factors associated with workers having worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea were (i) high volume of meals served, (ii) lack of policies requiring workers to report illness to managers, (iii) lack of on-call workers, (iv) lack of manager experience, and (v) workers of the male gender.”

The researchers acknowledged the study had several limitations – the uselessness of self-reported data, workers that were interviewed were chosen by the boss, not randomly, and not all infectious workers experience symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

What the researchers do not seem to have acknowledged is this: not everyone who works at a restaurant is barfing or crapping because they are infectious or ill; some are just hungover.

Factors associated with food workers working while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea
03.feb.11
Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 74, Number 2, February 2011 , pp. 215-220(6)
Sumner, Steven; Brown, Laura Green; Frick, Roberta; Stone, Carmily; Carpenter, L. Rand; Bushnell, Lisa; Nicholas, Dave; Mack, James; Blade, Henry; Tobin-D’Angelo, Melissa; Everstine, Karen
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2011/00000074/00000002/art00006
Abstract:
This study sought to determine the frequency with which food workers said they had worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea, and to identify restaurant and worker characteristics associated with this behavior. We conducted interviews with food workers (n = 491) and their managers (n = 387) in the nine states that participate in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Environmental Health Specialists Network. Restaurant and worker characteristics associated with repeatedly working while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea were analyzed via multivariable regression. Fifty-eight (11.9%) workers said they had worked while suffering vomiting or diarrhea on two or more shifts in the previous year. Factors associated with workers having worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea were (i) high volume of meals served, (ii) lack of policies requiring workers to report illness to managers, (iii) lack of on-call workers, (iv) lack of manager experience, and (v) workers of the male gender. Our findings suggest that policies that encourage workers to tell managers when they are ill and that help mitigate pressures to work while ill could reduce the number of food workers who work while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea.
 

Ontario restaurant sickened 5 in 2007; conviction still stands in 2010

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In May, 2007, five patrons of the Yaman Restaurant in St. Catherines, Ontario (that’s by Niagara Falls) got sick with E. coli.

The problems started when owners Mahmoud Asaad and Senan Daoud continued to run their business on May 19, 2007, despite the fact water to the restaurant was cut off due to a water-main break. The restaurant was shut down by the region that month, but reopened with a clean bill of health in August that year.

The two were convicted in 2009 on five counts each of selling food unfit for human consumption, and were fined $7,500 each.

The St. Catharines Standard reports that Judge Ann Watson said today in a written decision the 2009 convictions by another judge would stand in relation to four of five patrons.

Roaches, mice, bacteria on menu at some mall food courts

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An investigation by NBC’s Today show revealed that many food courts have a disturbing pattern of health violations.

The three-month investigation went inside some of the most popular malls in the United States and uncovered critical violations that can make people sick. In one Boston mall, Today captured footage of a cockroach climbing the wall right next to the grill at a popular food-court restaurant.

Most critical violations aren’t as obvious: bare hands on food, unsafe food temperatures, raw meat sitting out for too long — and filthy kitchens.

The investigation examined hundreds of inspection reports and included visits with food safety expert Cindy Rice to food courts at the Mall of America in Minnesota, Faneuil Hall in Boston and South Street Seaport in New York City.

Rice said food courts may be riskier than an average restaurant because of their tighter workspaces and higher volumes.

Reports show that since 2009 at Boston’s Faneuil Hall, 43 percent of vendors had critical violations that can make diners sick. At the Mall of America, 68 percent had critical violations, and at the Seaport mall — a tourist hot spot — 84 percent of vendors had critical violations.

Sometimes such cross-contamination can send unwitting customers to the hospital. Stan Pawlow, 14, ate Mexican food at a mall in Illinois. Days later, he was rushed to the emergency room with E. coli poisoning. His doctors said he could have died.

Pawlow wound up being one of five customers who were likely sickened after eating meals prepared by the same food-court vendor, where workers may have accidentally mixed salsa with raw meat.
 

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How clean was the cloth used to clean tables in your restaurant

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A reader asked Katie Fairbank of the Dallas Morning News, "Why do restaurants use those filthy rags to clean off your table

Fairbank says there have been plenty of times that I’ve watched a disgusted lunch companion wipe down a table right after it was swiped clean with a sopping wet dish towel.

"I am one of those people," said restaurant legend Gene Street. "I carry my little thing with Clorox wipes around in my car. When I go into a restaurant, I wipe it all down – especially the salt and pepper, since everyone touches their nose or their mouth and then touches them. Can you imagine what could be on those?"

The state and cities have regulations on exactly what restaurants need to do to clean tables. If that rag really is "filthy," the restaurant is not up to code, and the inspectors would like to know about it.

"There are a lot of viruses out there that can be transmitted from a surface," said Chauncy Williams, sanitarian supervisor for the city of Dallas. "Bacteria tend not to live long, but there are instances where a wet surface can help sustain it."

Dallas regulations require restaurants to have wiping cloths available to clean work areas, equipment, counters and customer tables. The cloths are always soaking wet, because they must be stored in a sanitizing solution. The solution itself must be tested periodically throughout the day to make sure it’s the right concentration. If it’s too strong, it could be too toxic. Too weak, and it doesn’t do the job.

Cafes, bars, restaurants and fast-food joints are also supposed to change the solution several times each day to make sure it hasn’t gotten dirty.

Scores on doors for all Australia?

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Lord Young told the U.K. government last month that he welcomed the Food Standards Agency’s decision to “drop the unfortunate title ‘scores on doors’” to describe restaurant inspection disclosure.

The POHMEs (Prisoner of Her Majesty’s Exile) have done their own review of the national food safety system and recommended that scores on doors be rolled out across Australia.

Good for them.

The national food safety review states that two-thirds of the 5.4 million cases of gastroenteritis in Australia each year can be attributed to food poisoning from restaurants, takeaway outlets, caterers and cafes (in a population of 21.4 million).

But, according to The Australian, it warns that the existing 2003 guidelines "may not provide the guidance needed to develop an effective food safety management approach for retail/food service."

Under the existing national rules, local councils inspect food outlets to check they are complying with basic standards for food hygiene and preparation. The safety standards are "outcome-based," replacing prescriptive regulations in each state.

But NSW, Victoria and Queensland have since broken away from the national system, imposing "add-on" requirements for staff working in food service and retailing to attend food training courses.

"State and local governments in some Australian jurisdictions are developing or piloting voluntary schemes that assign a ‘food safety rating’ based on routine inspection outcomes," the consultation paper, prepared for the Food Regulation Standing Committee of federal, state and territory food ministers, says.

"These approaches may provide a ‘positive’ incentive by publicising good food safety performance."

NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria already use websites to "name and shame" companies fined over food safety breaches — yet Victoria has only three prosecutions on its website, compared to 1821 penalty notices in NSW.

Restaurant inspection is a snapshot in time and disclosure is no panacea. But it can boost the overall culture of food safety, hold operators accountable, and is a way of marketing food safety so that consumers can choose.

Food safety shake-up for NZ restaurant inspection

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New Zealand restaurants and food service outlets feed 1.5 million people daily.
Food safety is an integral part of this experience. It’s a competitive advantage and an absolute necessity for one of the country’s cornerstone industries; it’s a customer’s expectation and right to buy food, enjoy it and live to tell the tale.

So says Steve Mackenzie, chief executive of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, writing in the New Zealand Herald.

But the hospitality business is about to get a shake up by way of a long-awaited Food Bill that will focus on food safety. The intent of the bill is to move food regulation in line with other developed countries, by shifting from an inspection-based system to a risk-based approach.

Whereas the present system involves an environmental health officer calling unannounced and touring the premises, the new operations will involve proprietor records, premise inspection and interviews with staff.

The Restaurant Association of New Zealand represents a select group of hospitality businesses and has been involved in consultation and pilot-testing of this new programme. Most association members support the new bill.

Members who participated in trials reported that they liked having control and accountability of their business back in their hands.

Simple documentation procedures, one handy manual covering all food safety aspects and clear guidelines for staff were also useful. In many cases the proposed changes were less onerous than the current programmes.

But with less than 12 months until transition, more than 90 per cent of the country’s eateries haven’t registered. That’s around 13,500 businesses.

A survey in April that confirmed the association’s worst fears: many business operators will wait until the last minute to make changes.

Worse still, many are not aware the changes are coming, and even those who were aware that the review was taking place, more than 55 per cent had little knowledge of the impact that this would have on their businesses in less than a year.

And despite knowing that there is proposed change, 60 per cent of those surveyed have made little or no preparation.

The biggest hurdle as we have seen in our survey results is awareness. There are many businesses that simply do not know they need to make changes.

The association recommends that the select committee working on the bill considers extending the first year transition of high-risk businesses from 12 months to 24, to ensure that under-resourced councils will be able to properly assist with implementation.

Communication: the basics are sometime the best

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With all the fancy iPhone apps and text notifications and Intertube what-have-youse, sometimes the basics work better.

CBC News reports fishermen in P.E.I. (that’s in Canada) say government emails and web postings don’t compare to flags in the water when it comes to warning them about high bacteria levels in shellfish.

The shellfishery in Charlottetown Harbour was closed on several occasions this summer when heavy rains caused the sewer system to overflow, creating high bacteria levels. Fishermen complained they weren’t getting adequate warning of the closures, which would enable them to harvest oysters and mussels ahead of the storm.

As Hurricane Earl made its way toward the Maritimes last month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency emailed people in the shellfish industry. It warned the storm could bring heavy rains and lead to closures.

John White, a policy officer with CFIA, told CBC News this was the last time such a warning would be issued. CFIA is opting for posting a notice on its website telling the industry that fishers are responsible for checking the forecast.

The P.E.I. Shellfish Association suggests putting yellow warning flags in the water when there’s a possible closure and a red one when the fishery is shut down.

Just like a red or yellow or green sign on a restaurant. Because who wants to check a web site when you just want to grab a meal?
 

Decision reserved in Ontario E. coli restaurant appeal

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Exactly how long it takes for E. coli bacteria to make a person sick is the central issue at an appeals hearing launched by two men trying to overturn their 2009 conviction for serving dangerous food.

The St. Catharines Standard reports Senan Daoud and Mahmoud Asaad. who operated the Yaman Restaurant, were in a St. Catharines court Monday to appeal their conviction for serving food unfit for human consumption that resulted in a fine of $7,500 each.

Their lawyer, Chris Bittle, argued testimony during their 2009 trial about the incubation period of the E. coli that made several people sick after eating at the Yaman left reasonable doubt about the source of the bacteria.

The pair were convicted on five counts of selling unfit food, Justice Ann Watson heard Monday, after a 2007 incident in which the water to the restaurant had been cut off due to a watermain break. Asaad and Daoud kept their restaurant open and served food. Several people who ate there later fell violently ill and tests confirmed they had contracted E. coli, with most contracting the same strain of the bacteria public health inspectors later found on chicken and a knife in the Yaman’s kitchen.