Category restaurant inspection

Fancy food ain’t safe food Irish edition: 9 dead mice discovered in ‘luxury dessert’ business

A “luxury homemade dessert” business has been ordered to close after food safety inspectors discovered nine dead mice in its production area, and mouse droppings on baking trays. Sweetness Luxury Homemade Desserts in Ardcavan, Co Wexford, was the subject of … Continue reading Read More

Identifying foodborne outbreaks using social media

As a new survey shows 95% of chefs cite customers getting sick as their top concern, a computer system developed by Columbia University with Health Department epidemiologists can detect foodborne illness and outbreaks in New York City restaurants based on … Continue reading Read More

14 sickened in 2016: UK steakhouse fined 50K for serving food on wooden boards

A restaurant has been slapped with an $86,000 fine for serving food on wooden boards after 14 people allegedly suffered food poisoning. Ibrahim’s Grill and Steakhouse in Birmingham was handed the fine last week. Birmingham City Council tweeted health inspectors … Continue reading Read More

It was probably the kitchen sink: 82 sick with Salmonella from UK restaurant 2015-16

From Eurosurveillance: It is estimated that over 38,000 community cases of salmonellosis occur annually within the United Kingdom (UK) [1,2]. Salmonellosis often results from consumption of contaminated food or water [3], however, transmission via asymptomatic shedding by food handlers and … Continue reading Read More

Everyone’s got a camera: Carl’s Jr. in Alberta outed by former manager

The co-franchisee of a Carl’s Jr. in central Alberta was, according to Carolyn Dunn of CBC News, temporarily barred from his own restaurant’s kitchen after a host of unhygienic behaviours that even “shocked” a public health inspector.  Jack Webb was … Continue reading Read More

These 675 people make your meals: Illinois man gets 18 months for food safety bribes

A Lynwood, Illinois man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for accepting bribes in exchange for allowing students in his food safety training classes to bypass sanitation certification testing, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago. … Continue reading Read More

Everyone’s got a camera: Mouse-at-Sonic edition

Drive-through fast food vendor Sonic, known for their creepy television commercials, made the silver screen in a less appetizing way in Corpus Christi, Texas. According to Jessica Hamilton of the Houston Chronicle, when the Cortez family pulled up to a … Continue reading Read More

Fancy food ain’t safe food: Science to back up anectodes

In the wonderful way the Intertubes can be used to reinforce pre-existing biases, a new paper in PLOS Currents Outbreaks validates what I – and anyone who knows anything about food safety – have been saying for a long time: … Continue reading Read More

How do you clean your knives?

Improperly cleaned and sanitized chef knives present a potential contamination risk and a source for foodborne illness. This study compared the efficacies of two cleaning methods (three-compartment manual dishwashing and sanitizer wiping) at removing food soils from contaminated chef knives. … Continue reading Read More

What about suppliers? Eating safe key to newerer NZ food certification scheme

Auckland Council is rolling out a new-look verification and certification scheme called “Eatsafe” in response to Food Act 2014 standards that came into effect on 1 March 2016. “Eatsafe is designed to protect and reassure the public by providing more … Continue reading Read More