NY health inspectors make fines without any justification...

[acroyear]

I saw this yesterday but didn't have time to rant on it.  Fortunately, Ed Brayton has more free time than I do, so I'll send you to him instead...

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Rise of the Health Nazis:

The latest target of my ire comes via Radley Balko, citing a NY Times article about that city's health inspectors forcing restauranteurs to stop preparing food using a [French] technique called sous vide - vacuum-packed foods slow cooked in simmering water. And they did so without a single complaint of any food-borne illness resulting from it:

Long story short, fine restaurants like that aren't nameless, faceless corporate bohemeths.  They honestly care about their product and their customers and know damn well that one incident of food-bourne illness would put them permanently out of business so they will never, ever risk such a thing.  Yet the health inspectors refuse to permit this technique without any justification that it is a health risk.

Comments

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

The thing is "sous vide" is NOT a new method like the article was stating. One of the classes I took in Spring of 1993 (Microbiology of Food) discussed this technique (and the fact it was used extensively in a middle-class chain restaurant). The idea was that the food would be prepared partially and packaged (say, take a boneless breast of chicken, sear it with a branding iron to look like a grill, pour the lemon sauce on it, and vacuum pack it in plastic, ship it at JUST above freezing (34F) to the restaurant where it could be heated and cooked slowly to be served over rice or whatever nice and hot and juicy. Studies were done to perfect the sauces for flavor and for micro-organism inhibition (lemon and tomato are very acidic) ... specifically to target the anaerobic microbes (since the aerobic ones are already unhappy with the lack of air in the package).

The professor discussed a lot of food poisoning things and it was a fascinating course. I happen to concur with him that 'properly cooked hamburger' (internal temp raised to 450F) has the taste and consistency of a hockeypuck. However, you really should either grind your own hamburger (cleaning the meat first) or get it at least medium well (clear juices, no red, minimal to no pink).