Exposes by local media and the weekly discussion of restaurant food safety compliance might do something for inspection scores.  Media pressure certainly affected L.A. over 12 years ago, leading to a revamped inspection system and the county becoming a U.S. leader for posting restaurant scores. Anecdotally, the coverage affects sales both positive and negatively. Pretty well every day media coverage of restaurant inspection shows up in our Google Alerts and most of the time what’s being reported is entirely expected: dirty sinks, insects, food out of temp, etc.

I made my first soup ever a few weeks ago.

I’ve never really loved soup for a variety of reasons (mainly because I’m messy when I eat it) but Dani loves it. I’ve taken over the majority of meal duties since our youngest son arrived a month ago and I thought I’d mix things up and dive into the world of soup. I made a butternut squash/apple soup that actually turned out pretty good and was easy to make (except for dicing up the squash). Quality-wise, it was way better than what I’ve had in the convenience of canned or boxed soups. I made a bunch of soup but not enough that I needed to freeze or can. We ate it all within a few days.

There are weekly features in various media outlets about the increase of home-based food processors and the changing/updating of rules to support the local food economy businesses – many of these businesses are an expansion or new direction of a family-run farm.

Doug and I (and lots of others) gained experience with this sector 10 years ago while working with Jeff Wilson and co. at Birkbank Farm in Hillsborough ON (that’s in Canada). Jeff, moving away from just producing commodities and towards being a ready-to-eat food producer, had a market store on his 200 acre fruit and veg farm and expanded his business.

The extension agents I work with in North Carolina are receiving an increased number of calls looking for advice about moving from a strictly agriculture business to other ventures like making apple cider; baking pies and canning jams; shredding and bagging leafy greens to be sold with homemade salad dressing; and making soup.

Relatives of Doug’s run Barrie Brothers Local Food Company, who expanded into the home food business as a way to supplement their existing fresh asparagus sales.

From their website:

The Toronto Star reports in tomorrow’s paper that while a March 2009 announcement by Maple Leaf Foods describing a "fair and early settlement" of an estimated $27 million to victims following their 2008 Listeria outbreak, no money has been paid out.

They have not paid out one penny to anyone,” said Walter Muller, who was awarded a small amount after he got sick from what he thinks was salami that was later part of a nationwide recall of cold cuts contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes in the summer of 2008. 

The deadline for victims or their family members to submit a claim was in November 2009. The timeline for actually putting the cheque in the mail, on the other hand, keeps getting extended.

The Star reports that no money will be paid to any claimants until all claims are settled or arbitrated and detailed medical evidence can be collected and verified.  

 Laura Bruneau,  president of the Bruneau Group who is handling the claims cites delays in scheduling doctor’s appointments as the problem “People are reporting to us that it can take anywhere from six to eight months to get an appointment to see their physicians.” Wow.

Lawsuits and settlements can take a while to resolve but unfortunately those affected by the pathogen are the big losers in the delays. Revisiting this outbreak over two years after it occured also demonstrates the need for food businesses to have a long-term recovery and crisis management strategy — it’s so much more than being open, transparent and available during the early days of the incident.

We’re preparing our Thanksgiving meal today as my Mother-in-law, who’s been here for the past week and is an enormous help with the new baby, is traveling back to Canada tomorrow. Stuffing, potatoes, squash and apple crisp are all prepared and chilling in the fridge. The bird is in the oven and is on target to be done around 5pm.

I’ve been getting some intermittant calls and emails from extension agents and others for some last minute tips; here are a few of the tidbits:

-Cooking turkeys overnight at a really low heat is still a common practice (without using a thermometer)– it’s not a best practice and not recommended, especially without watching the temps of the meat as it cooks.
– It takes a few days to thaw a frozen turkey in the fridge — putting it in the fridge or on the porch now, in preparation for tomorrow is probably not enough time. Cooking from frozen is a good alternative.

-The inside of the carcass is the most contaminated part — cross contamination while stuffing a bird (if that’s the technique being used) can be a big problem.

-Timing of the meal is tough — heard an anecdote from an infosheet subscriber who attended a family meal a couple of years ago where the turkey was cooked and sat on the counter for 4+ hours as the rest of the meal was prepared.

Earlier in the week I spoke with Jeanna Bryner from LiveScience and we talked about some of the risks associated with Thanksgiving meals (including the infamous exploding-a-turkey-in-a-deep-fryer-trick).

From the article:

Don’t wash the turkey. What?! "As soon as you have the pressure of the water hitting the turkey it can spray anything on the outside of that turkey around the kitchen," Chapman told LiveScience. Researchers in the United Kingdom recently found that forceful water hitting a turkey could spray its pathogens up to 3 feet (about 1 meter) away. Chapman recommends wiping the outside of the bird with a damp rag, and then immediately throwing that rag into the washing machine. "Treat that damp rag like a raw chicken," he said, adding that it likely contains the pathogens you’re trying to avoid.

Quick, get the bird in the fridge. As soon as the meal is done, Chapman suggests getting the turkey meat into the refrigerator, because if any pathogens were left on the meat they could start growing as soon as temperatures get below about 135 degrees F (57 degrees C).

And for your viewing pleasure here are some links to our holiday food safety infosheets and other relevant ones for the past couple of years:

Holiday meal food safety

Avoid foodborne illness during the holidays

Bathing birds is a food safety mess

Keeping poop off the plate

Avoid the runs around the holidays

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Mid-week football, four days of quiet family time and the kick-off of the holiday season — signified by the repeated showing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on USA Network. With a new little dude here (Sam, he was born Nov 6) who likes to feed every couple of hours and a somewhat crazy 2-year-old, most of the turkey dinner preparation is falling to me this year. I’m planning on doing some dishes in advance and cooking a simplified menu — but it will still involve a fresh turkey. Click here for the holiday meal food safety infosheet.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are going to the farmers’ market and eating.

But mainly eating.

Where I grew up (Port Hope, Ontario – that’s in Canada), there was a small tailgate farmers market Saturday mornings in the parking lot adjacent to Valu-Mart, but the real event was a trip to either the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto or the Peterborough market on Landsdowne St.

I never really wondered whether the stuff I bought would make me sick. I didn’t think a whole lot about food safety and regulation until years later. I figured that if someone could sell it, they must know what they are doing, and I didn’t have to worry about it. I didn’t know (or care) whether the butter tarts (a Canadian, and probably British delecacy; right, exactly as shown) were made in someone’s home. I just wanted them to taste good (and justify the trip). Food safety is all about trust, and I had lots of it.

We’re in a bit of a waiting game. My wife and I are expecting our second child at any moment (for real, today’s the due date). For our first child, Jack (right, exactly as shown), planning was much less of an issue. We had him at home, didn’t have much else to worry about except making sure our dog was out of the way and we could deal with him coming whenever he was ready. Planning is much more part of the situation this time: we’re using a Chapel Hill-based birth center (40 min away) and have a calling tree of folks who will look after Jack once things start happening.

We had a midwife appointment today and following the check-in we hit a favorite restaurant of ours, Maggiano’s in Durham.

The card says to cook until “thoroughly hot” but doesn’t say anything about what temperature that might be, or that a patron might want to use a thermometer to verify it was hot enough.