Category Archives: Food Safety

When role models are wrong

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As an avid cook, baker and self-proclaimed foodie, I can’t help but love Julia Child. She revolutionized cooking for the American home-cook, but for me it’s more than that. She changed careers late in life, proved herself in a field dominated by men, and her career was her passion. But, she also washed her chicken. I can see the logic in it, that washing chicken before cooking would perhaps wash away bacteria, make it easier for a breading or sauce to stick or be absorbed, result in a better taste…I mean reasons that don’t sound awful, do they? Well, regardless, those nasty chicken germs are 1) still likely going to be on the chicken when you’re done washing it with water, and more importantly 2) will likely spray all over yourself and your kitchen. Even after teaching children about hand washing, disease prevention and germs over the course of a summer, I hadn’t really thought about the spray until NPR’s article “Julia Child was Wrong: Don’t Wash Your Chicken, Folks” came out a couple days ago. Check out the “germ vision” video put together by Drexel University to see what I mean:

Although I’d love to think of Julia Child as the expert on all things cooking, her use of butter and other ingredients certainly didn’t lend her to being a nutrition expert of any kind, or in the case of washing chicken, a public health expert. Although in her defense, she never claimed to be either!

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Letter grades for all

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The great debate between food trucks and restaurants in New York City these days isn’t over the quality of food, but whether both should be rated with a letter grade by Health Department inspectors. Restaurants argue that all food vendors should also maintain the same level of cleanliness and food safety and should have to post letter grades of how well they score. Some food truck vendors feel that it is unfair to rate food trucks the same way that restaurants are treated, whereas others feel that it is not a problem to display letter grades, when they are already inspected and are already expected to maintain cleanliness and food safety.

Example of the letter grade a restaurant would post, courtesy of NYC DOHMH

As a consumer and member of the public health field, I would have to agree that a letter grade should be displayed by all food vendors, from food trucks to fast food joints to the fanciest eateries in town. There are certain factors that affect my decisions on where to eat: flavor, creativity, cost, nutritional value, location and convenience. However, these are all things I would sacrifice in the name of safety. I would travel farther to eat at a restaurant or food cart that has a higher rating, because regardless of what I’m eating, what it costs and how it tastes, I want to be certain that I will not be eating in a restaurant where employees don’t wash their hands, where dishes aren’t properly sterilized, where food is stored improperly, etc. It is easier to me as a consumer to make a “safe choice” when the food inspection rating is evident.

This debate is an issue which should not be reduced to discrimination against certain businesses (i.e. food trucks) but should be looked at as a best practice in business for consumer protection and the consumer’s right to “safe food”. It is fair to grade these vendors in the same way as upscale restaurants, because in the end, a safe food truck would win out over an establishment with a failing grade, regardless of the special of the day or the chefs on staff.

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References:

Epstein, E. & Bowen, A. (2011, December 4). Food feud between restaurants, street carts. Metro. Retrieved from http://www.metro.us/newyork/local/article/1041601–food-feud-between-restaurants-carts

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygeine. (2011). New grading system for restaurants. Retrieved from http://home2.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/rii/grading.shtml