Category Archives: Restaurant Inspection

Bad idea: alligator allowed to greet Michigan restaurant patrons

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When I think Port Huron, Michigan, I think cajun. So why not have an alligator meet restaurant patrons. Because they are eating machines and most lizards are Salmonella factories. Maybe they should install a petting zoo while they’re at it.

A 4-foot long alligator named Wally will be allowed to greet patrons of a Michigan cajun.gator.dec.13restaurant.

The City Council voted 4-2 on Monday to allow American alligators in its central business district.

Wally will greet guests at Cajun Gator. The restaurant is expected to open within the next week.

Banquet hall in Canada charged following suspected foodborne illness

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A Thunder Bay banquet hall is facing charges following a suspected foodborne illness outbreak.

The outbreak followed an event at the Moose Hall on Fort William Road on Dec. 13. 

Officials with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit say an estimated 20 per cent of the 270 people in attendance began displaying symptoms within a few hours of consuming food moose-hallserved at the hall. 

But the outbreak was short lived, as the symptoms only lasted about 24 hours. 

A charge has been laid and the hall’s food production has been suspended pending the outcome of their investigation.

19 sick; Salmonella hits health inspectors at UK restaurant

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The freshest ingredients don’t mean much if they’ve got Salmonella; and most chefs don’t have Salmonella goggles.

The bug which caused a group of Leicester City Council health inspectors to fall ill following a night out at a popular Indian restaurant has been identified as Salmonella.

Leicester City Council’s food safety team took 49 samples from the kitchen at Kayal, in Granby Street, Leicester, after 19 people reported Kayal, in Granby Street, Leicesterfeeling poorly after eating there, over a two-week period this month.

The popular restaurant, which has only ever had five star health and safety ratings in the past, closed immediately pending an investigation.

It has now reopened.

Inspectors found that salmonella was present in one sample – the chutney, which was freshly made on the premises each day.

Kayal owner Jaimon Thomas said the condiment was no longer on the menu, and he was now committed to re-establishing the restaurant’s previous impeccable hygiene record.

He said: “The salmonella was found in a chutney which we make each day using the freshest ingredients – namely coconut, ginger, green chilli, curry leaf and mango.

“Because of the findings, we have stopped making fresh chutney in the way that we always have for the past eight years. Customer safety is our top priority.

Don’t pick nose and get finger out of ear; top food safety tips for Indian street food vendors

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The millions of food vendors peddling tasty morsels from roadside stalls and rickshaws across India have long been an emblem of the country’s boisterous, chaotic spirit.

But now, Indian officials have a stern message for these often-unregulated roadside chefs: Wash your hands after using the toilet. get.that.finger.out.of.your.ear.airplaneDon’t sneeze into the food. And, above all, please don’t pick your nose.

Launched by India’s Food Safety and Standards Authority and the National Association of Street Vendors of India, the seminar offered a primer on safe drinking water and disposable gloves, along with a list of food-handling do’s and don’ts.

Number one on the forbidden list? Don’t pick your nose. Also banned are cleaning one’s ears, smoking while handling food and spitting into the wash basin or sink.

The goal of the program is to create “safe zones” in popular areas, but is it really possible to sanitize street food in India, where suspending any fastidious concern for hygiene has always been part of the deal?

Food safety whistle-blowers to get part of the fine in Taiwan

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If Chapman could figure out a way to pay people, his #citizenfoodsafety would really take off.

In Taiwan, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is raising the reward for whistle-blowers and others who tip off the government to food safety violators, a day before a district court was set to hand down a ben.washingtonverdict in an edible oil case that has shaken confidence in locally-produced food products.

FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) said that newly amended FDA regulations will allow anyone providing tips that lead to the discovery of violations to receive a 5 percent to 10 per cent cut of the fine imposed on the offender. The previous regulations only offered 5 per cent.

Salmonella from food shopping on-line

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Do sandwiches and other food purchased via the Intertubes pose a unique food safety risk?

Researchers in Taiwan say, yes, in the current issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.

Food sold over the Internet is an emerging business that also presents a concern with regard to food safety. A nationwide foodborne disease Internet-marketing-sandwichoutbreak associated with sandwiches purchased from an online shop in July 2010 is reported. Consumers were telephone interviewed with a structured questionnaire and specimens were collected for etiological examination. A total of 886 consumers were successfully contacted and completed the questionnaires; 36.6% had become ill, with a median incubation period of 18 h (range, 6–66 h). The major symptoms included diarrhea (89.2%), abdominal pain (69.8%), fever (47.5%), headache (32.7%), and vomiting (17.3%). Microbiological laboratories isolated Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Salmonella Virchow, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli from the contaminated sandwiches, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Virchow from the patients, and Salmonella Enteritidis and Staphylococcus aureus from food handlers. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis genotyping suggested a common origin of Salmonella bacteria recovered from the patients, food, and a food handler. Among the pathogens detected, the symptoms and incubation period indicated that Salmonella, likely of egg origin, was the probable causative agent of the outbreak. This outbreak illustrates the importance of meticulous hygiene practices during food preparation and temperature control during food shipment and the food safety challenges posed by online food–shopping services.

Jail time for man selling bad meat in Lebanon

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Government officials and business leaders stood together Friday in calling for stricter food safety measures as news broke that a man convicted of selling spoiled meat had been sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a fine of LL50 million.

Arslan Sinno, vice chairman of the Lebanese-American Chamber of Commerce, told a gathering at the chamber’s offices in Sanayeh that lebanese.food.tabbouli.falafelLebanon should update its laws to be in line with international standards.

“We want to nourish the Lebanese market and economy to give it international exposure,” Sinno said.

Industry Minister Vreij Sabounjian later took the floor, promising to “promote strategies aimed at improving food safety in Lebanon.”

Ivy league hit with illness

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The Ivy League. Home of desired educational importance, home of so much food safety incompetence.

In May 2010, Haaaaaaavard managed to sicken over 300 people at its faculty club, with 14 belushi.animal.housestaffers working while ill (see Heston Blumenthal).

Now, there are several outbreaks of norovirus at higher education institutions on the East Coast.

Brown University, in the rarefied air of Rhode Island, reports at least 19 students sick.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is reporting an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis on campus, and at least nine individuals have come down with symptoms of foodborne illness apparently linked to the Ivy Club at Princeton.

In January and February of 2013, 115 students came down with gastroenteritis at Princeton. The year before, 275 students came down with gastroenteritis, the largest outbreak at the university recorded in the past decade.

University smart ain’t street smart. And we all eat.

How Chinese will be able to sue over bad food

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I like the cash prizes part in the story below from the China Post, building on other initiatives, like Chapman’s #citizenfoodsafety effort. We all eat.

A panel discussion at the 2013 National Food Safety Meeting earlier in Dec.  focused on how Chinese consumers could better be compensated if they are negatively affected by doug.ben.13food products with mislabeled ingredients or tainted with illegal additives.

Chairing the panel, Professor Huang Li of National Chengchi University said that consumers have been put at a disadvantage when involved in food safety incidents. For instance, they are required to show invoices to claim compensation. “This means ‘no invoice, no compensation,’ in sharp contrast to big-name vendors, who are able to retrieve tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars in compensation if they suffer losses from selling falsified food products,” Huang said.

A representative of the Consumers’ Foundation at the panel discussion suggested that the government should impose large sum punitive fines on firms which violate the Food Sanitation Act so that consumers can enjoy more compensation.

Meanwhile, Tsai Hong-chih, chairman of the Changhua Medical Alliance for Public Affairs, said that a significant portion of proposed food safety funds should be used to encourage locals to report violations of the Food Sanitation Act, with cash prizes given to informants to be boosted to 30 to 50 percent of fines collected.

Fine up to $9,600 set for food safety violators in Vietnam

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According to a new governmental decree, violators of food safety regulations will be fined up to US$9,600, along with possible additional penalties.

Decree 178/2013 calls for administrative penalties on violations of food safety regulations. The maximum fine for individual violators is VND100 million ($4,800) and the highest Vietnam Gastronomypenalty for collective violators is VND200 million ($9,600).

In addition, based on the nature and/or level of violations, violators can be given additional penalties such as the revocation of food safety certificates, the suspension of operations for a certain period, or the confiscation of the products, materials, and equipment that were used during the violation.