"health department" news and stories

After months of controversy, the first of New York City's 24,000 restaurants received a letter grade for cleanliness and food safety under the city health department's new program.

Spark's Deli, a 24-seat eatery in Queens, got an "A" on Wednesday after a two-hour inspection the day before, the Wall Street Journal reported. Restaurants around the city will receive A, B or C grades which must be displayed in restaurant windows.

The city also unveiled a new restaurant inspection web site, designed to help customers make restaurant decisions based on hygiene practices and food safety, health department deputy commissioner Daniel Kass told the New York Times.

While all restaurants can appeal B or C grades, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it expects most restaurants to earn B grades. That, however, doesn't mean they are unsafe.

In California, there is a small, but growing debate developing over rice cakes - not the dry, crispy cakes that are sold in packages in the grocery store, but traditional Vietnamese rice cakes that consist of sticky rice, filled with seasoned pork and wrapped in a banana leaf. The problem is that the restaurants and shops that sell them are being made to comply with state food safety regulations that go against the way that these buns are normally served. Ken Trieu, whose family has been making and selling the cakes in San Jose for two decades, says that the cakes should be at room temperature and can remain that way for two days. The health department says that the cakes can only remain out at room temperature for 2-4 hours, or need to be in a hot or cold (less than 41F or more than 135F) environment to prevent bacterial growth. Health analyses have shown that the cakes are "potentially hazardous'' at room temperature, as are several other similar rice and pork pairings.

At the moment, vendors are trying to get the cakes, and other traditional foods, re-tested for safety.

The real question is whether you, the consumer, think that foods that are served in a slightly less than traditional manner are losing something in terms of quality or flavor or if the tradeoff for safety is worth a compromise.

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The New York City campaign against sous vide cooking continues, but with a little bit of new light shed on the subject. As expected, it is not the practices of all chefs who use the technique that are under fire, but the practices of some who are risking the use of the cooking method for all. According to this week's New York Times, the cooking technique that locks in moisture and flavor by keeping the food sealed in a vacuum might also lock in bacteria because some sous vide chefs also store their food in vacuum sealed packages.

Contrary to popular belief, vacuum sealing a food is not enough to prevent the growth of bacteria and cooks who store and cook their food in the same container are risking the health of their customers. In France, where the technique originated, chefs are required to cook food immediately after it has been sealed and cooked to an internal temperature of at least 132.8 degrees F, at which point most of the potential bacteria in the food will have been killed.

The health department's new guidelines will not be released until the summer, and until then chefs who use sous vide in New York risk facing charges of a misdemeanor, with a possibility of imprisonment.

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Sous vide is a cooking method that involves packing food, usually meat, in a vacuum-sealed bag and poaching it in water for a long time over low temperatures. It was first developed in France in the late 1960s and it is a popular technique with chefs at high end restaurants because the food prepared in this way is more tender, juicy and flavorful than as it is in some other methods of cooking.

The water temperatures used to cook the meat are often much lower than boiling, though, which raised concerns from the New York City Health Department. The department feels that the risk of bacteria breeding in sous vide food is very high, especially if the bag is improperly sealed. Though there have not, as yet, been any health problems tied to sous vide cooking, the health department has imposed fines on chefs using the method until a city health code that specifically governs the use of the technique has been drawn up. Chefs have been forced to dispose of thousands of dollars of vacuum packed food, both cooked and uncooked, by city inspectors and have complained that not only is the city's move unwarranted, but that they were not given any notice of the change in policy prior to their regular inspections.

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